Kitsune no Yomeiri
by Trenchcoatgirl-Kyo
Summary: Three years after Naruto left with Jiraiya, Hinata's gotten stronger. But can she prove it to herself and the Hyuuga clan, or will she have to give up on Naruto forever? HinaNaru
1. Chapter 1

Kitsune no Yomeiri: Chapter 1 

Hanabi perched in a tree, watching her older sister berate herself.

"AUGH! Stupid Hinata! I can't believe I fainted!" Hinata sighed sadly.

Almost three years had gone by. Hinata had pushed her limits- learning Jyuuken, pulling all-nighters to study Hyuuga law and history, attempting to mend the rift between the main and branch houses, attending countless council meetings. She and Sakura were frequent sparring partners, she was nearing Neji's level of Jyuuken, her father had come to respect her, the council of elders approved of her ascension as head. She was a chuunin who'd lead numerous missions, and who was considering taking the Jonin exam in a couple of years.

But she still fell to pieces when she saw Uzumaki Naruto.

Even though every waking moment had been purely dedicated to fulfilling her secret, impossible dream. Even though she'd been stopping by Ichiraku's at least three times a day since she'd heard that Naruto was back in town. Even though she'd been (completely in vain, she knew) searching the Hyuuga laws and bylaws , looking for loopholes that allowed marriage outside the family.

Hanabi rolled her eyes. Onee-san was so _obvious_ sometimes. You didn't even have to have the Hyuugas skill in reading body language to know _exactly_ what she was thinking. If she was going to be the head, she had to improve on that.

And give up her stupid, infantile crush.

Down below, Hinata sighed again. She hadn't even got speak to him because of her fainting fit. , and he'd been assigned another mission. She pushed her fingers together desperately.

"Oi, who's there?"

Hinata whipped her head up.

Hanabi stifled a giggle. Her sister had the _worst_ luck, Because there, in all his pig-headed, loud mouthed, unpredictable, blonde, blue-eyed, and orange clad glory, was Uzumaki Naruto.

"Na- Naruto-kun?"

Hanabi mimed gagging. Her sister had lost her stutter six months after Naruto left Konoha.

"Hinata-chan?" Naruto asked.

Hinata blushed deeply. He was so much taller now, and his voice was deeper. His shoulders were broader, and he-

Her face burned as she replied "H-hai, Naruto-kun"

"Ne, so it is you! Sorry you felt bad the other day"

"N-nani?"

"I mean, you fainted."

"Oh!" she started to explain "That was because-" his blue eyes flashed expectantly. "T-that is… I… ano… you…" she sighed. "I w-was a bit under the weather."

"Well, I'm glad you're doing better"

"Ano.. hai…"

"So, what have you been doing while I've been training with Ero-sennin? Three years is a lot of time."

Hinata tucked her hair behind her ear. She was actually having a conversation with him! "Ano, I learned more Jyuuken, and Hyuuga law, and-" she caught a look of his expression "Well, boring stuff. I also passed the chuunin exam on my second try… our whole team passed together. I've been taking missions since then, though my last really major one was to train with an old student of Tsunade-sama's. I learned a lot from her. And lately I've been attending council meetings and teaching some of the children of my clan"

"Oh, so you're gonna be the head then?" he asked.

"Ano… hai. The elders decided that I was the best choice to become head this year. They were considering Hanabi- my little sister- for a while after the chuunin exams. But they revised their decision"

"You'll be an awesome head" he replied confidently "So we'll change Hyuuga together!"

Damn, that sounded slightly weird, didn't it? Naruto thought. He was baffled. Apparently, Hinata was too, as she didn't say anything, but then again, even her ears were turning red. Maybe she wasn't recovered yet?

Naruto found his eyes wandering in an entirely unacceptable direction. Sakura may not have changed much in the last three years, but Hinata certainly had. Her long hair did look really good… made her look more mature, but…

Her hair wasn't the first thing his eyes had been drawn to… he'd definitely spent too much time with Ero-sennin lately.

"Ano… I've been thinking about how to change Hyuuga as well" Hinata said, snapping Naruto's attention back to the conversation at hand.

"Seriously? Then Uzumaki Naruto will help out where he can!" he said, a bit loudly. Hinata smiled.

"Arigauto. I mean… it meant a lot to me when you cheered for me at our first.. er.." Hinata's face, which was finally back to a mostly normal color, flushed again at the phrase "our first", but she tapped her fingers together and then said "At our first Chunin exam. It was… ano… that is… I missed having you cheer for me" Hinata said sheepishly.

"Well, when you talked to me before my match with Neji, that really boosted my confidence." Naruto said.

"You're welcome" Hinata hid her mouth behind her hand.

Naruto looked around as if suddenly realizing something "Ne, speaking of which, this is that training ground, right?"

"Hai"

They were both quiet momentarily, watching the sunset.

"So do you come here often?"

"Hai, almost every day… this is where Team 8 met for the first time… we trained here a lot… and… well" _and_ _you said you liked shy, dark, weird people like me here_, Hinata thought "It's a special place to me"

"Excuse me, Hinata-sama" a voice from the edge of the clearing said softly. They both turned to see the person speaking.

It was an older woman, maybe nineteen or twenty. She had the white eyes, black hair, and cursed seal of a Hyuuga. She noticed Naruto and bowed politely to him.

"Hello, Uzumaki Naruto-san" she said.

Hinata said hurriedly "Ano… Naruto-kun, this is Himawari-san."

Himawari smiled "As Hinata-sama said, I am Hyuuga Himawari, of the branch family. I watched your match against Neji-san in the chuunin exams, and I was very impressed by your skills." She said warmly.

Hinata looked down at her feet, pleased. Naruto was looking happy as well. It wasn't often that someone from Konoha's most illustrious clan complimented him.

"Ne, ne, nice to meet you too, Himawari-chan" Naruto grinned. Himawari returned it, if a little more composed.

"Yes, I'm very, very sorry, but Hinata-sama is required back at the compound. There's a meeting with Hiashi and the council members." Himawari said.

"OH!" Hinata gasped and then bit her lip. She'd completely forgotten.

"Oh, okay then, Ja'ne, Hinata-chan, Himawari-chan" Naruto said, already walking towards the main road. Himawari and Hinata walked in the opposite way.

"Hinata-chan" Himawari said curiously, dropping the "sama" as soon as they were in private, "It's not like you to nearly miss a meeting"

"Ano… ano…" Hinata blushed furiously.

"Hinata-chan, I'm not Naruto, try not to faint on me" Himawari grinned.

"Himawari-chan!"

"I'm kidding" Himawari smiled. "He's a good person. And if he can change Hyuuga, more power to him. He'll make an excellent Hokage. I can see why you like him"

"Ano…"

"And don't worry, I won't tell Hiashi-sama, either"

Hanabi sat in the tree, considering what to tell her father when he asked for her report on what Hinata had been doing with her time.

X

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X

Hinata sighed as she exited from the meeting room, following her father. The heavy kimono dragged on her arms, and if there was another more uncomfortable and stiff, it'd be made out of aluminum foil. But the Hyuuga head-to-be had always worn it in meetings.

Himawari was waiting for her in the hall, and fell into step behind her until they reached Hinata's room. Hiashi bid his daughter good night, and then Himawari shut the screen door and untied Hinata's obi and took off the heavy outer kimono. Then Hinata went to change behind a screen.

"How was the meeting, Hinata-sama?" Himawari said. It was too risky to treat Hinata with anything but utmost respect in the compound.

Hinata answered from behind the screen "The elders are still resisting marriage between the branch and main house members, even though there's a bylaw that clearly allows it and also outlines how children born from an inter-house marriage are to be sorted into the branch and main families." Hinata sighed.

"You've done much for the branch house, Hinata-sama. I thank you for that."

"Not enough" Hinata said, rubbing her shoulder where it was stiff from being still so long.

"That's not so. Hino-kun loves his lessons with you, and even though Higurashi-kun would never admit it, he does too. My uncle tells me that you remind him of your grandmother, who was a very good person, branch house or no, Hyuuga or outside the clan. Himawari said cheerfully, making Hinata smile "In any case, I'm sure inter-house marriage will be approved by the council soon. Hopefully, within the year. And in a few years, who knows?" she grinned.

"Ano… I wasn't even thinking about… ano… my marriage yet"

"Hinata-sama, I've served you since I was seven years old, when I received the cursed seal, with the exception of the two years I served the council. I walked with you and Hiashi-sama on the first day of your training at the academy. I saw how you've looked at him from the very beginning. I've observed him from that day as well. And it's my opinion that, what ever the council of elders may say, he is a good person. He's the only one in this town who you could ever hope to give your heart to." Himawari said softly. "and I've been with you much too long not to wish you happiness."

"Happiness like you have with Hiruga-kun?" Hinata teased. It was Himawari's turn to blush.

"Hai."

Hinata smiled "I've been working with the elders to allow it."

"I know it. He is far enough from the line of succession that I believe it will come to pass." Himawari said. Hinata came out from behind the screen as Himawari got out the futon.

"Hai. I'm sure it will. I never go back on my word" Hinata said "Goodnight"

"Goodnight, Hinata-sama"

Hinata smiled as Himawari shut the door.

Himawari had been her assistant- a role that included dressing Hinata appropriately for every occasion, studying and practicing Jyuuken with her, and body guarding, tasting, and chaperoning her- since Hinata's third birthday. Even though the older girl had been cold to the Hyuuga heir at first, after a short time, Himawari had come to care for her charge.

There had been a two year period, before Hinata passed the chuunin exam, when Hanabi was being considered the heir, when Himawari had been placed under the council, which essentially meant she was to be an assassin sent on dangerous missions in the hopes she'd be killed off. After eight years of serving Hinata, Himawari's loyalties to Hinata were considered too dangerous. But Himawari had survived, and had been re-commissioned the day that Hinata passed her chuunin exams.

Hinata was pressing the case for inter-house marriage for Himawari's sake. Her caretaker had asked to meet in private two weeks ago, and then begged Hinata to arrange her marriage to Hiruga, who was main branch. Hinata had been surprised, but agreed, thinking that she could change Hyuuga at least a little by getting the elders to approve inter-house marriage before pleading Himawari's case.

But the council was being exceedingly stubborn… maybe she should ask her father privately instead? She fell asleep mid-plan.

X

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X

"Oi, kid, not that I don't mind that my best customer is back, but we're closing up for the night."

Naruto slurped down the rest of the miso ramen "Just one more bowl, Ji-chan"

"Alright, one for the road" the ramen man smiled and handed him another.

"Sá kyuu!" Naruto grinned and wolfed down the noodles.

"So, you got a girlfriend yet?"

Naruto choked on his ramen and had to pound himself on the chest before he could breath again. "Nani?" he coughed and took a shaky breath. "Why would I?"

"Rally? No one yet?"

"Well, yeah. Sakura's gotten kinda scary, hasn't she?" Naruto said "And she likes someone else, anyways."

"No, no, I wasn't talking about her. I was thinking of… oh, what's her name…?" he snapped his finger, clearly scouring his memory.

Ayame smiled at her father's acting and supplied "Hyuuga Hinata"

"Hinata-chan, that's right" the old man said, as if remembering.

"Hinata-chan?" Naruto repeated, bewildered.

"She's been coming by here every day for what, two, three weeks now?"

Naruto looked puzzled "I didn't know Hinata-chan liked ramen. And she didn't mention that she'd been coming by…"

"She really is quite cute" Ayame added.

"Yeah, yeah- wait! That is… yeah, she is, isn't she?" Naruto said, flustered. What the hell was he saying?

Father and daughter shared a smile. The kid was impossible. But then again, the old man had taken three years to realize that his late wife was head over heels for him. "Well, why don't you go talk to her"

Naruto shrugged "yeah, sure. That's a good idea."

"Alright, one more bowl for the road, and then we're definitely closing up" the old man said, pitying Naruto's confusion.

"YEAH! Now that's what I'm talking about!"

X

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Hanabi tossed and turned on her futon that night. She hadn't really done anything wrong… but she hadn't told her father that Hinata had talked with Uzumaki. It was a little like lying, maybe, but they hadn't really said anything that important, right?

Still, it bothered her.

X

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Hello, people! Yay for A/N. So this is my first Narutoverse HinaNaru. Just a warning, this is gonna be a loooooooooooooooooooong story. 45-50 chapters, maybe. So it's gonna take some dedication.

Kitsune no Yomeiri means "The Fox's wedding", which was my original AU HinaNaru, so you don't have to read it, but you might want to.

Okay, people, review!


	2. Chapter 2

HA! I am very. Very. Very excited. 7 reviews in the first two days! HA! THANKS SO MUCH TO ALL OF YOU REVIEWERS! Now onto to chapter two!

Chapter 2 

"Yeah, it's really weird. It's like Naruto's brooding over something. He hasn't asked me out for three days." Sakura told Ino as they moved boxes upstairs into Sakura's new apartment. "It's weird"

"Maybe your brute strength scared him off." Ino teased. Sakura threw a mock punch at her best friend.

"Shut up, Ino-pig. Anyways, I think we should take the opportunity to… you know…" Sakura grinned evilly.

"Set him up with Hinata?" Ino finished. "Sure. I love a challenge"

"Yeah, hence you going after Shikamaru" Sakura set down the boxes she was carrying. Ino struggled through the doorway with her load. Dropping it on the ground, she shot Sakura a glare.

"_Anyways_, I'm all for it" Ino said. Alright. So, in the way of obstacles, we have Naruto's terminal stupidity, Hinata's inferiority complex, the whole of the Hyuuga clan, Hinata's team.."

"And Neji" Ino said.

Sakura rolled her eyes "I think he's included in the Hyuuga clan"

Ino shot back "No, he's of a completely different category"

"Oh, shut up. Just because you tried to enter the Hyuuga compound via a tree- a dead tree, I might add- and broke your wrist, all in order to get your revenge for his so called insults to your 'divine beauty'…"

"SHUT UP!" Ino snapped, her cheeks red. "Anyways, why did you say her team?"

"Yes" Sakura said firmly. "Kurenai-sensei cares about Hinata, which means that she'd be okay with the idea of Konoha's number one idiot dating Hinata, but only if he wouldn't hurt her. If she thought he might, Naruto would find himself in a non-stop genjutsu hell. Kiba also gets all weird about Hinata. I don't think he likes her, but he'd definitely be willing to pay Naruto back for the chuunin exam if he found out that they were dating. And Shino.. well, he'd probably stalk and kill Naruto. So we have just as much work there, trying to convince them that it's okay as we do getting them together."

"Right. So why don't we just make a pre-emptive strike?" Ino said.

Sakura shook her head. Here she was, trying to carefully plan out a delicate operation, and her best friend was simply suggesting setting Naruto and Hinata up on a date. Then again, why the hell not? "Sure. I'm supposed to train with her tomorrow, from noon to 1:30, at training ground 84. So, in that case, here's what we should do…"

X

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X

"Boy, that really wore me out! Nice job today" Sakura said to Hinata as they walked back from the training ground.

"Arigauto" Hinata said in a voice that held no trace of a stutter. "But aren't we going the wrong way? Your house is on the other side of the village"

"Nope, I moved, remember? My apartment is this- oh! Hey, look, there's Naruto!" Sakura said cheerfully. Everything was going smoothly so far.

Hinata's face blanched and then flushed.

"OI! Naruto-kun!" Sakura called. He stopped walking, and then he turned to look at them, his face lighting up.

"Oh, hey Sakura-chan!" he replied happily "Oh, Hinata-chan? I didn't see you"

Heart sinking, (_of course, he doesn't notice me when Sakura-chan is around_, she thought) she replied "Ano… hello, Naruto-kun" she said shyly.

Just then Ino popped out of nowhere and said "Sakura-chan, Tsunade-sama needs you. There was an emergency at the hospital."

YES! The timing was perfect "Hai! I'll go at once" Sakura said, face looking serious. "I'm sorry, guys, but I really have to go. Thanks for training with me, Hinata-chan. I'll see you around some time, Naruto."

"Ino-chan, you should come with us" Naruto said. Hinata squeaked. _Us?_ "I was gonna go to Ichiraku's, and you and Hinata-chan should come too"

"Sorry! I'm supposed to go with her" Ino said, and then ran off behind Sakura. The two girls barely made it around the corner before bursting into laughter.

The two friends left an awkward silence with Hinata and Naruto as Hinata stared at the ground and Naruto put his hand behind his head. "Well, I was just on my way to Ichiraku's. For lunch. So you can come. With me. If you want. I mean, not on a date or anything" he said nervously. Hell, what was wrong with him? Maybe it was just his "observations" from the other night that were making him all weird-sounding.

Hinata smiled as her heart sank even lower. He didn't want to make it sound like it was anything more than a meal between friends. Which it wasn't. But she'd still hoped. "I'd love to come with you"

He noticed her lack of stutter "Oi, you talk normal now"

She flushed. "Well, ano… I just stutter when I'm… ah… nervous, so…" she pressed her fingers together.

He put his hand on her shoulder. "Well, it's just me. You don't have to be nervous." She blushed more. "Oh, sorry" he said, removing his hand from her shoulder.

_Actually, it felt nice, but it'd be weird to say that_, Hinata thought as they walked to Ichiraku's.

The old man and Ayame both noticed that they walked up together, but simply restrained themselves to smiling, though both of them would have dearly loved to comment.

"I'd like a pork ramen" Naruto said, sitting down.

"Miso for me, please" Hinata ordered.

Ayame set down their orders in front of them. As Naruto finished his third bowl, Hinata spoke up. She was still stirring the noodles of her first bowl "What was it like, training with Jiraiya-sama?"

He slurped up the chopstick full of noodles and then said "He mainly left me alone. He'd say 'Naruto, learn how to do this, and don't bother me until you're done with it' and then wander off to get drunk and hang out with women. But I did get a lot stronger!" he grinned and flexed his arm. Hinata giggled, and he noticed how nice she looked when she was smiling. He hastily gulped down more noodles, and then asked "You went on a training journey, too, didn't you?"

"Hai" Hinata replied.

"What was it like?"

"Onee-chan-" Hinata caught sight of Naruto's confused face and then clarified "She told me to call her that, it was much less conspicuous than calling her 'sensei'. Well, Onee-chan taught me a lot of things. I spent almost as much time in the library as I did out training"

"Sounds boring" Naruto said. Hinata shook her head.

"Not really, It was all very useful, I'm going to be running a clan someday. And we traveled a lot. We went mostly through Hi no Kuni, but we also saw Kaze, Tsuchi, and Mizu as well. Ano.." Hinata stopped and giggled again.

"Huh?" Naruto asked.

"Well, it's just that when we traveled through Nami no Kuni… the bridge that they built there… I know you had a mission there once. The bridge is called 'The Great Naruto Bridge', and…"

Naruto's grin nearly split his face in two.

"Heh heh" he said proudly. "Yeah. I can't believe old man Tazuna never said anything"

Hinata was smiling as well. It was nice to be able to have a conversation with him when she wasn't busy fainting. "Where did you go in your training?"

"Eh, mainly to hot spring resort towns in Konoha. It was safer if we traveled around" Naruto replied. Hinata looked interested, and that's when he realized that he had just screwed up. "Because of Ero-sennin's reputation! I mean a ton of people want to catch up with him! So it was safer for us to travel."

Hinata accepted the flustered lie gracefully "I can see how that might be." She said simply. Naruto breathed a sigh of relief.

"Yeah, so it must be nice to have seen all those different countries" Naruto said, trying to change the subject.

"Yes. Kirigakure was really beautiful, even though it's still recuperating from the civil war a few years ago. And Suna was very interesting too. I was surprised at how advanced they were. Iwagakure was alright. We were there less than a week, so we didn't see much of it" she said.

"Yeah?" Naruto said, actually interested. The mission to Suna was the first time he'd been there, and he hadn't ever been to Mizu or Tsuchi.

From the roof of the building across the street from Ichiraku's, Sakura and Ino were watching them.

"Wish we could hear the conversation" Sakura said glumly. "This is less fun that I thought it would be.

"Aw, shut it. At least we get to see what's happening" Ino replied.

"Whole lotta good that does us." Sakura sighed.

"A picture's worth a thousand words." Ino snapped.

They began to bicker and completely missed the significance of what happened next.

"So how's Himawari-chan?" Naruto asked, their conversation about other countries concluded.

"She's doing well, but I think she's worried about something. Probably about her miai and her marriage" Hinata said "miai" with a certain amount of pride. She'd convinced her father to allow the first preparations of a betrothal without informing the council.

"Eh? She's getting married? But she's only like, seventeen!" Naruto exclaimed.

"She's nineteen, actually." Hinata giggled. "And in the Hyuuga clan, we tend to marry young. And I don't think she's really worried about getting married, but IF she's getting married"

"Nani?"

"Well, even though the miai has been arranged, the council is potentially opposed to her marriage" she glanced at Naruto and started to clarify "The council resist inter-house marriages. Himawari is branch house, and Hiruga, who she wants to marry, is main house. So they might not get to marry."

"So, wait, branch house members can't marry main house members?" Naruto asked.

"Well, not technically. The laws support inter-house marriage, the head who wrote them thought it would strengthen the bonds between the houses. But the last inter-house marriage was twenty years ago"

"Wow. You really know your stuff" Naruto said. Hinata looked down and blushed.

"Well, I'm going to be head, so I better. And I want to help Himawari-san if I can, and…" Hinata stopped.

"And?" Naruto prompted.

"Nothing!" Hinata said "W-well, I mean… ano…"

"Yeah?"

The words tumbled out before she could stop them "I like- that is… I'd like to… marry outside of the family" she looked mortified.

"So you like someone outside of the clan?"

"Y-yes" Oh well. What harm could it do?

Naruto stopped. He'd thought she just meant in general. But she liked somebody? Now this was news. Naruto processed this tidbit of information, completely disregarding that she'd been by Ichiraku's every day fro week, and what that might mean. He shrugged and then asked "So you're trying to help Himawari-chan get married? That's pretty cool of you"

"I guess. I mean, she's always been there for me, so… I want her to be happy" Hinata said, visibly relieved at the turn their conversation had made. _So she doesn't want me to ask about who she likes?_, Naruto thought.

"Yeah." Naruto said "So how are you two related?"

"Ano… her mother was my father's cousin, and her father was…" Hinata pondered this for a second "my grandfather's cousin's son? I think" she paused again "The family tree gets a bit complicated. Her parents are both main house, and she had two little brothers. One is ten, and the other is only three. The older one, Higurashi, is main house, and her younger brother, Hino, is branch." Hinata explained. "That's why I ha- that's why I want to change the system. It splits up families. Well, really, we're all one big family, and it's certainly split us up"

"Yeah. Anyways, we'll change Hyuuga together. When I'm Hokage and you're the head, right!"

"Hai" Hinata replied, trying to forget that none of the previous Hokages had made much difference in Hyuuga policy.

"We should spar together sometime. I wanna see how strong you've gotten" Naruto said "You train with Sakura sometimes, right?"

"Hai. She says it's ideal, because if she loses any chakra control, she can't use her super strength. So it helps her to learn to avoid getting hit" Hinata said.

Naruto thought about this briefly and found that it made sense. "Oh. I see. You're pretty smart"

"Not really" Hinata said, though she looked pleased.

Their afternoon was suddenly interrupted by a familiar voice "Oi!"

The two of them turned around to see Choji with a smile on his face.

"Choji! What are you doing here?" Naruto asked.

"I was supposed to get you two. We need to report to the Hokage." the boy replied.

"OI! A MISSION! Finally!" Naruto said happily.

"Hai. It's an A-rank mission too." Choji shrugged. "We're ordered to report immediately for more details." Then he looked as if he had suddenly remembered something "And, by the way, have you seen Sakura-chan? She was assigned the mission too. She was supposed to be hanging out with Ino this afternoon, but I haven't seen either of them"

By this time, Ino and Sakura had stopped bickering and opted to move closer, as to be in earshot of any conversations between the prospective couple. Now they had both turned to look at each other.

"We are-" Ino started

"SO screwed" Sakura finished.

"EH? I thought Sakura had to go to the hospital because of an emergency!" Naruto said.

By this time, Choji, knowing Ino (and through her, Sakura) as well as he did, had figured out what was going on. And Hinata had guessed at what Sakura was up to when she'd said such a hasty good-bye, this newest information only confirming her suspicions.

Sakura decided to surrender before Naruto figured it out too. She pretended to be coming around the corner, presumably looking for them. "HI! We have to go guys! Mission and all that!"

Ino followed suite, appearing behind her, saying "YEAH! You guys better go, it sounds important!"

Choji elected not to say anything on the pain of being Shintenshined into a frilly dress (Kiba had already made the mistake of pushing Ino too far once and his dignity had paid the price). Hinata on the other hand was thinking, _They figured it out… they know I like him… they know…_, and didn't say anything.

Ino then mumbled a plea about being late for something and took the opportunity to vanish. As she did, Sakura dragged the group to the Hokage's tower.

Tsunade's brow had a deep furrow in it by the time they'd reached her office. Kotetsu and Izumo were slowly edging out of reach of her killing intent.

"I don't like it when people are late" she said as the four teenagers all tried to look away from her. "I ESPECIALLY don't like it when people are late for a mission that not only hold the safety of Konoha in its hands, but also of Hi no Kuni. Missions that could tip the international scale in our homeland's favor, if they succeed, or could result in Konoha being in Suna's position a few years ago, where the daimyo stopped taking missions from his own hidden village." Tsunade glowered at them.

Even Naruto knew to shut up in the presence of that killing intent. So none of them said a word. Tsunade tinkered briefly with the idea of telling them she would not tolerate any more Kakashis (at least he had a good reason for being late), but decided not to waste anymore time.

"Your mission is an escort and body guarding mission. I'm serious about how important this mission is. If you screw this up, I will see your heads mounted on that wall." Tsunade watched as everyone gulped, including the cowering Kotetsu and Izumo. "YOU WILL DIE if this is messed up, or completed with any than less the perfection expected of Konoha shinobi." Then she threw a handful of files at the group.

"The daimyo is not in his first flush of youth, and though he still has quite a few more years left in him, he's chosen a replacement, an heir apparent-"

"So we're escorting the heir apparent?" Naruto asked excitedly.

"No-" Tsunade started, but was interrupted by Naruto.

"Aw, then why'd you get us all hyped u-" Naruto complained, but was stopped by Sakura.

"BAKA! You have no idea what her wrath is like!" she hissed.

"ANYWAYS, you'll be escorting the heir apparent's fiancée and her train to the capital" Tsunade said "It's a two day journey at top speed, but it'll take longer since you're traveling with a large group. This mission will probably take four to six days, and then you're to see the princess taken to the palace. Once she's in safe hands, head back and report to Konoha immediately."

"Excuse me" Sakura said "But why isn't the princess already in the capital?"

"It's some bizarre royal practice. She spent a few years as a miko in some temple, and that's supposed to prepare her for her duties, or something. And also because when she was supposed to return, shortly after the chuunin exams… she… er… had somewhat of a _disagreement_ with the heir apparent. But it's all resolved now, so they're getting married, and she has to go to the capital"

The little group suddenly shared a vision of a fire-breathing Medusa in kimono, and gulped.

Tsunade smiled sweetly. "Ready to meet your clients?"

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CLIFF HANGER! Sorry, people. Had to do that. And the next few chapters and the mission may get a wee bit annoying (even to me) but they do have their purpose. It all becomes important in future chapters.

So I hope you enjoyed, and thanks to all reviewers! (Just a note, if you review, I do reply… whether by PM if you signed in or by putting a notice at the beginning if not)

And also, because I'm happy that I beat my self-imposed deadline, but mainly because I'm a masochist like that, I'm going to be updating KNY once a week(?) or so, and two chapters at a time. This is because the chapters for the other series that I am writing usually is twice as long as KNY, and KNY is gonna be way longer, so it's my way of evening things up. So if I die of exhaustion, you know why.

Next update is august 7th.

Review, please.


	3. Chapter 3

Whoot! First of two chapters! Review!

Chapter 3 

Tsunade smiled sweetly "Ready to meet your clients?"

As there was no outward sign of enthusiasm or compliance, Tsunade said "Kotetsu! Izumo! Take them to the other room."

The Jonin nodded and did as they were told. The group was escorted to a small room off the main hall, with only a screen in the corner.

"Eh, Tsunade-obaa-chan, you've kept us waiting" a voice from behind a screen said. Then the silhouette seemed to shift. "Eh? You guys aren't Tsunade-obaa-chan"

"Duh!" Naruto said, completely disregarding Tsunade's warning about the eminent doom a lack of politeness would bring about.

"Too short, for one" the silhouette walked out from behind the screen. "Isn't there a height requirement for ninja?"

Naruto was torn between siding with the girl simply because she had the nerve to call Tsunade "obaa-chan" and taking offense to the slight about his height.

"I'm her grace, Lady Kyoko of the Suimei line, under the very impressive though pretentious title of 'weaving maid and the Yata no Kagami'." The girl said. "My little sister, Nyoko, with the equally pretentious title 'her honorable Yamayuri-sama, the Yasakani no magatama' is downstairs. By the way, our little brother is named Ken. His title is 'the junior councilor of Konoha and its affairs and the Kusanagi"

(A/N: First and last time I cut into the middle like this, I swear. The joke in the titles above is that the three imperial treasures of Japan were a sword (Kusanagi, associated with valor), a mirror (Kagami, with wisdom), and a string of beads/ jewels (Magatama, with benevolence). "Ken" means "Sword", "Kyoko" means "Mirror" and "Nyoko" means "Gem")

The girl winked. Naruto apparently had no clue what the joke was, though the others apparently understood it. He couldn't think of anything to say to that, so he said "Your hair is long"

"No kidding. Good to know you aren't blind… Anyways, my hair is six feet long" Kyoko said.

And it probably was. The jet black hair that fell to the floor over the twelve layer kimono was ridiculously long. "Anyways, are you gonna tell me you names, or do I get to guess?" she smiled. "Oh, actually, I probably can… Hyuuga Hinata… the Hyuuga are practically Konoha's royalty, and you're the only girl of your age." Kyoko said.

"Hai. I'm Hyuuga Hinata." Hinata replied.

"You are so cute!" Kyoko said. "This trip may not be as big of a pain as I thought it would be" then she turned to Sakura "And you're a Haruno, right? The pink hair is kind of a big hint. And as I know, there's only one Haruno family in town, so you must be Tsunade-sama's apprentice, right?"

"Hai"

"And you" she said to Choji "Are Akimichi Choji. I made it to your chuunin exam. You did really well. It was the first one I'd seen in a couple of years."

"So that leaves you…" she said to Naruto. She paused and thought "…No… I'm drawing a blank. Sorry. Here's a consolation prize" she said cheerfully, handing Naruto a frog shaped squeaky toy.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU DON'T KNOW ME?" Naruto yelled. "I'M GONNA BE THE NEXT HOKAGE! I TRAINED UNDER ERO-SENNIN! I'M UZUMAKI NARUTO!"

Whoops. Well, now she knew that she recognized him. "Right… you're the kid who painted all over the stone faces." And the kid with the demon fox sealed in his belly. Being three years older than them, she was just old enough to remember the incident. Her dad, who's family was from Konoha, had brought her to see the damage done. Her mom had also lived in Konoha once, but she didn't want to come back to see it, and she still hadn't gone back.

"And who also beat Hyuuga Neji in your first chuunin exams. I didn't see that, but I heard from my cousin that it was amazing. Oh, and you're the idiot who Fuku-hime says disgraced her" Kyoko said.

"That is… well…" Naruto put his hand behind his head.

Oh damn. He did look just like _him_. Her mother would flip a-

All thoughts were interrupted by a yell outside the room "KYOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" a girl slammed open the door.

Although she was wearing twelve layer kimono, she certainly looked less like a princess than Kyoko. Her hair was almost as long as Kyoko's, but it was a very light brown. "KY-" the girl stopped. She looked at the four Konoha nin. "Choji?"

"Kin'akairo?" he replied. Kyoko sighed wearily.

"That's my sister, Nyoko." Kyoko explained.

"But he just called her Kin'akairo" Naruto asked, confused.

"In the courts, it's considered rude to call a lady by her real name. So the we go by aliases." Kyoko explained patiently.

"Sorry, Ki- I mean, Nyoko" Choji said.

"It's okay." Nyoko said, miserably.

"How do you two know each other?" Sakura asked curiously.

"We met on a mission for team 10 three years ago. Long story" Choji shrugged.

"So why did you come screeching up here?" the elder sister asked the younger.

"Oh, right" Nyoko said. "Where's Mister Moomoo?" she asked, pronouncing "Mister" as "Mistah"

"You lost him again? Nyo, what are you, stupid?" Kyoko asked wearily. "Is he in your sleeves?"

"Oh… I didn't check" Nyoko said. Then she started checking her layered sleeves. "Found him!"

She pulled out a stuffed cow. "MISTAH MOOMOO! JIRAIYA MOOMOO!" she yelled. Nyoko then grinned cheerfully. "Hi, I'm Nyoko, of the Suimei line, Yamayuri-sama and the Yasakani no magatama, at your service!"

"Hyuuga Hinata" Hinata said warily.

"Haruno Sakura" Tsunade's apprentice replied, sweat dropping.

"Akimichi Choji"

When the time came for Naruto to introduce himself, he said instead "Why would you name your cow after Baka-Ero-Sennin?"

"BAKA!" both princesses cried.

"JIRAIYA-SAMA IS A GENIUS OF THE WRITTEN WORD!" Kyoko exclaimed indignantly.

"HE IS OUR MUSE!" Nyoko yelled.

While peeping on a hot spring, Jiraiya sneezed.

"You're not eighteen yet, Nyo, you're not supposed to read his stuff" Kyoko said, ignoring a confused Naruto.

"Shut up, Kyo. You shouldn't leave his books lying around." Nyoko retorted.

The two sisters fell to squabbling as their would be body guards looked on.

This was who was in charge of running their country?

X

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"Wow… you have a lot of… er… cows." Naruto said helpfully, upon entering the carriage. One side of it was taken by stuffed cows.

"They all belong to Nyoko." Kyoko explained. "She doesn't have enough room in her carriage."

Sakura had helpfully suggested splitting up to accompany the two princesses in their separate carriages. Of course, Choji and Sakura went with Nyoko and Naruto and Hinata went with Kyoko.

Kyoko arranged herself in the middle of two enormous stuffed cows, and Hinata and Naruto sat on the other side of the carriage. As the carriage got started, Hinata accidentally bumped against Naruto and blushed. That was all it took to tip off Kyoko about Hinata's feelings for Naruto. As soon as Kyoko realized this, it was easy to spot other suggestions of Hinata's affection.

"We'll be at the gate shortly, and then I'd like you to inspect our guard, Naruto-san." Kyoko said. "I wanna talk with Hinata"

Naruto shrugged. Hinata seemed puzzled.

"Why would you want to talk with me?" Hinata asked.

Kyoko whistled. "I'd heard about your inferiority complex, but I didn't know it was this bad." She sighed. "I want to talk with you because, besides the obvious things that we have in common, you seem like you're sweet and that's something I haven't seen in many Hyuuga, and I've dealt with my fair share of them. Plus I want to hear about what it's like to be the Hyuuga head."

"Ano…" Hinata smiled.

Kyoko smiled in return. "You must have some pretty handy tricks, right? Have you ever noticed that usually people don't notice that you're listening if you're sewing? They'll say anything in front of you if you have a needle in hand."

"Actually, in my house, it's a bit trickier, but if you're reading, they seem to think you're only concentrating on that." Hinata admitted.

"Really? I wouldn't think that the 'All seeing eye' could be fooled by that. Wow. I'll have to remember that one. Isn't it harder to get away with stuff when your family is known for 360 degree vision?"

"Not really. The Byakugan functions like a normal eye when it's not activated." Hinata said.

By the time they were at the gate, both girls were deep in conversation.

"Well of course the caged bird seal is going to backfire. It's pointless. First of all, no seal or technique is completely unbreakable. If you can find the way to make something unbreakable, someone else will find a way to break it. Second, the original caged bird seal was supposed to protect the family. From what? It sure as hell doesn't protect from inbreeding- one of my friends in the Hyuuga died in childbirth a year ago, and then her baby died. The birthing rituals are messed up too. So it doesn't protect the Hyuuga from inbreeding, and it doesn't protect the family from the nutcases- Gomen ne- who take over the headship." Kyoko said.

"Hai, that's what I think too. And the birthing rituals are horrible" Hinata shivered. "Was your friend Hisako?"

"Yeah" Kyoko said sadly. "Poor thing"

"The elders made me attend. It was-" Hinata shivered agin.

Kyoko looked like she was going to start crying.

Naruto, feeling awkward, said "I'm gonna go look over the guard."

"Sure" Kyoko said, slightly choked.

As he left, both girls sat in a sad silence for awhile. Then Hinata said "She wouldn't- she wouldn't want us to sit around missing her"

"Yeah, I know. She was just such a good friend to me." Kyoko said. "In any case, we were friends because we both wanted the Hyuuga to change. She'd be glad to know you're in charge."

"How did you two meet?" Hinata asked.

"My mom lived right by the Hyuuga residence when she was little- she was semi-royal, but her dad was the councilor of Konoha and it's affairs, so they lived in the classy part of Konoha instead of the capital. My mom always used Hyuuga guards when she visited Konoha… she hasn't gone since I was three, and then she said she would never go again when I was six. She said Konoha lost everything that made it home" Kyoko explained. "She hired Hisako to be my bodyguard."

"Oh." Hinata said.

"Anyways, she knows a bunch of people from Konoha, since she lived there until she married my dad when she was twenty. Then she moved the capital. She knows Choji's dad, for one. She says the first Ino-Shika-Cho were really fun. Since they didn't have a girl on their team, and there are places where it's necessary, Inoichi cross dressed. She has pictures somewhere."

Hinata giggled. Kyoko smiled wickedly. "Anyways, on to more… timely issues. You like Naruto, right? A lot"

Hinata went bright red. "You've only known me for a few minutes, and you can tell?"

"Yeah, kinda. I've been in your shoes." Kyoko said. "You do realize that Naruto-kun is an idiot, right?"

"He's… he's a proud loser. Even when he falls, he gets up, stronger than before. He never goes back on his word" Hinata said determinedly.

"Well… you do realize that he's an idiot, though. That he'll probably never reciprocate your feelings and even if he does, he's still an idiot, right?"

"He's going to be the next Hokage" Hinata said.

"He's still an idiot" Kyoko said.

"Yes. But I still care for him" Hinata said.

"Just as long as you know" Kyoko replied cockily, looking out the window as they rolled by the trees.

"Kyoko-hime-"

"Kyo"

"What?"

"Call me Kyo. The court is too stuffy as is. It's Kyo"

"Kyo… please, Naruto-kun is very important to me. Please don't say such things about him" Hinata said quietly.

"Hinata-chan, I'm sorry if it offends you, but he is an idiot" Kyoko sighed. Well, this wasn't going the way she had planned. A change of subject was needed. "So… moving on… what are your beliefs about duty?"

"Nani?"

"Well, I mean, do you believe it's your job to preserve clan traditions, because that's what makes the Hyuuga the Hyuuga, or do you think it should change because people are suffering" Kyoko asked.

"I think the Hyuuga should change. The clan is collapsing. We're big enough that it would be a slow collapse, but if we keep doing things the way we are, we're dooming ourselves"

"But don't you think that it's your duty, as Hyuuga head, to see that the purity of the Byakugan is not diluted with common blood?"

"I think it would be my duty as the head to keep my clan from dying out from inbreeding" Hinata replied firmly.

"Don't mind me, I'm playing devil's advocate" Kyoko replied. "You're gonna have to answer all these questions eventually anyway. Anyways, how can you say that the clan is inbred? Your generation is possibly one of the greatest of the Hyuuga, from what I understand. You must be doing something right"

"Neji-san is probably the greatest Hyuuga genius, but he's still subjected to the caged bird seal. Any main house member could kill him at any time."

"But the caged bird seal is a holy seal that keeps the branch house in line. Otherwise the less pure Hyuuga would revolt and sully the immaculate blood of the main house"

"The branch house has produced many better fighters. That proves that the divided clan system isn't doing it's job. There should be a merging of the two house of Hyuuga" Hinata replied.

Kyoko continued. "How can you even suggest that? The Hyuuga has always kept with it's ancient and holy traditions, what right have you to change them?"

"Because everyone has suffered from the divided clan system. My father. My cousin. My uncle. The council, half of them have had to put their own family in the branch house to keep the balance of power. The branch family members, especially. The Hyuuga living out side of Konoha, who have to comply to the head in Konoha who never met them. The parents who have seen their children torn apart from each other by them imposition of 'branch house' status on some and 'main house' on others. If I don't change them, what right have I to call myself the head, who is supposed to lead the Hyuuga family?" Hinata replied in a strong and steady voice.

"Yep. That's certainly true." Kyoko said. "Hm… give me a second to think of a counter argument… Well, be that as it may, the Hyuuga traditions are sound. Why change them so drastically? There is nothing wrong with the other rules of Hyuuga, and you are going to be the head. If you cannot make the Hyuuga bend to your will, you don't deserve the title."

"The other rules are correct? It is right that the youth of the Hyuuga clan are pushed into arranged marriages with no love involved? That marriages are arranged to give main house members status? These marriages rarely lend to the emotional support that is necessary for any sort of meaningful relationship. Also, these marriages produce few children. If a child is conceived, overcoming the barrier of inbreeding, it is born without a helping hand to guide it into the world. No one is allowed to so much as lay a hand on a Hyuuga woman in birth. Many women and children die because there is no one who can help them. If the child survives, it is immediately headed for one of the two houses, to either be a pawn or to be branded forever. Those who are branch members are forbidden from knowing our most powerful techniques. The ones born into the main house are pushed from the very moment they are born to be worthy of the name Hyuuga." Hinata finished.

"Nicely done. Give the girl a prize" Kyoko smiled. "Alright, well what if I were to say…"

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"Are you guys still talking?" Naruto asked. "We're going to make camp." He asked. He'd inspected the guard thoroughly. There were about twenty samurai in the company, as well as a few extra carriages carrying the princess's ladies-in-waiting.

Hinata and Kyoko looked up from a long discussion over the advantages and disadvantages of Kekkei Genkai. "Oh, did we stop?" the princess asked.

"I'll go help." Hinata said, climbing out of the carriage. Kyoko watched her carefully.

"What were you guys talking about?" Naruto asked as they walked to the supply wagon where the tents were being stored. The train had stopped in the middle of a large clearing in the forest, since they were traveling by back roads.

"About Hyuuga" Hinata replied. "Ways that it could change. How to bring about change so that it has the most effect." She tucked her hair behind her ear.

"Yeah." Naruto said. Probably stuff that he couldn't keep up with. "So… what do you think of her?"

"She's… an odd choice for the wife of the Daimyo. She seems like she's keeping a lot of secrets. And I don't agree with her on everything" Hinata frowned slightly. "But I think… she's a good person."

"As long as she doesn't keep cats." Naruto replied. Hinata giggled. Team 8 had been on enough missions finding Tora, after all.

"Well… I don't think so." Hinata smiled a little bit. "We should start setting up tents. It'll be dark soon."

"Yeah" he picked up some poles and started assembling them, with Hinata helping. "Here, I wanna know some of what you guys were talking about. If I want to change Hyuuga, then I have to know stuff"

"Well, we talked about why the branch house was originally started, back when the Byakugan first surfaced as a Kekkei Genkai." Hinata said. "What was flawed in the original arguments, what other factors might have influenced the decision. Things like the era, the economy, and clan values."

"Why would the economy matter?" Naruto asked.

"Well, because at that time, when there were two separate houses but before the caged bird seal was invented and the founding of Konoha, it was a war-torn era. The original idea behind the branch house was to-." Hinata started to explain.

"OI! NARUTO!" Sakura yelled from across the clearing. Naruto's attention immediately snapped to his pink haired teammate.

"What?" he yelled in reply, already striding across the clearing, leaving Hinata to manage the tent alone.

Hinata looked at his retreating back sadly. She kept forgetting that no matter how much he talked to her, he still liked Sakura. She sighed.

Then she finished setting up the tent and moved onto another one. As she finished setting up the second one, she felt someone's eyes on her. She saw Kyoko watching her with a sympathetic look in her eye. Then Kyoko drew back into the shadows again.

Maybe the princess was right- she didn't stand a chance. She always somehow fell short.

"I never give up! That's my nindo!" she made herself say. "It's my ninja way."

X

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Wow. I ended this on a melancholy note, didn't I?


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4 

"So then, if they say that, couldn't you just dispute it, saying that it's your duty to have strong children?" Kyoko said.

"Yes, but then there's the point that is always brought up. The Hyuuga are the strongest." Hinata, who was sitting across from her, sighed.

"People are stubborn, aren't they?" Kyoko said wryly.

"Hai." Hinata agreed.

Naruto was sitting with them in the carriage today, doing his best to keep up. "Wait, why are you talking about that stuff?" Naruto asked, attempting to have things clarified.

"We're talking about marriage outside of the clan. Coincidentally, this is a hotly debated topic at court as well" Kyoko replied, untangling a bunch of brightly colored silk threads.

"Shouldn't people just marry for love?" Naruto asked, playing with a bright green thread that fell from Kyoko's lap onto his leg.

"They should. But some people have too big of a stick up their ass about the purity of bloodlines. It's manipulative bull, but frighteningly common." Kyoko said. "Give me that, Green is not your color" she added, taking back the piece of green.

"Okay… why do they care about that?"

"Because Kekkei Genkai or familial traits, or the lack of them, tends to make people feel superior in many cases. They are different, and they are special" Hinata explained, trying to keep the princess from repeating her lengthy rant about "so-called bloodline purity"

"Hand me that red thread, please, Hinata" Kyoko said absentmindedly, apparently not paying attention to anything but her silks.

Hinata handed her a long, bright red cord, which Kyoko looked at carefully. "Maybe it's not long enough." Kyoko said, feigning worry. "Here, Let me see. Hinata, give me your hand" she smiled.

As Hinata offered a pale hand, Kyoko tied the red cord around her pinky finger. Then she demanded "Naruto, give me your hand too." He offered his right hand. "Your left one, please." He offered the other, puzzled. She tied the thread around his pinky as well, and then giggled. "Good. It is long enough." Then she removed it from their fingers.

Hinata eyed the princess carefully as she teased the cord apart, making two skinny cords of the same length. Kyoko gave an innocent smile. "Where were we?"

"Bloodline purity." Naruto responded.

"Right. Anyways, as I said, the Hyuuga pride would think that way" she guided the conversation gently, and tied three different colored silks onto the end of half of the red cord. Then she stuck a safety pin through the knot, pinned it to one of the heavier stuffed cows and started to braid the colors around the red thread.

"But… why is it better to marry outside of the family?" Naruto asked. Kyoko rolled her eyes as the conversation started all over again.

X

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Sakura sighed and looked at the younger princess, who had uttered barely a word on the journey. She seemed to be sinking into a depression. Choji had been constantly trying to distract her from her from whatever was worrying her, though his attempts didn't seem to be working. It was the prospect that Choji felt some sort of attraction to the younger girl that Sakura had called Naruto over to discuss, out of earshot of the subjects.

"I'm going to get out and circle the perimeter. Routine check" Sakura said, not able to stand another minute of silence. She climbed out of the carriage as it was still moving.

There was a moment of awkward silence between the two. Then Choji said "Nyoko, the-"

"Call me by my real name, please." The princess asked. "I mean, you have to call me Nyoko around the others, but when it's just us…"

"Okay, Kin'akairo" Choji replied, willingly.

"Aka" she said. "Aka is fine."

"Okay, Aka." Choji smiled. She returned it weakly.

"She doesn't know how lucky she is. Sakura-chan, that is." she said. "To be that free… to be able to defend herself and the people around her, it must be awesome."

"It must be nice at court too, Kyoko-hime seems to be happy enough to go back" Choji pointed out.

She stuck out her tongue in reply. "No way. I would love to be able to be a ninja. Otto-san's little sister lived with him in Konoha and went to the academy. She became a Jonin and stuff, but when Otto-san and Kaa-san" she made a face "moved back to the capital and court, she had to go too. She taught me a few things, swordsmanship, Katon, and stuff like that, but Kaa-san cut off my training when I was twelve."

"How good are you?" Choji asked curiously.

"I've been trained by an elite, if retired, Jonin all my life. I'm at chuunin level, power wise, but I'd probably be a genin. I don't have what it takes to lead missions." She shrugged.

"That's impressive" Choji said. The princess let a small smile slip. He grinned in return.

"I'd love to live in Konoha… but I'd have to be married to a councilor of it's affairs, and the two choices are my little brother and my Otto-san. There are parts of the capital that I love, but I won't be able to see them once we're shuttered up again" Aka sighed.

"You're going to be the Daimyo's sister-in-law. Won't they let up on you?" Choji asked, puzzled.

"Nope. It'll be worse. Everything I do will reflect on Nee-chan. So, essentially, we're both screwed." The princess slouched. Then she drew back the hanging that covered the carriage window. Sunlight flooded the small space.

"I think you'll do fine, Aka" Choji replied.

"That's nice to say, but I am an obstinate lily, and an odd one. All the other people will resent me." The princess said. "Even if I pretend to be normal, and polite, I will still be the stubborn Yamayuri." She turned her face away from the sunlight.

X

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That night they made it to a near-derelict temple. The monk welcomed them with gusto and provided all of them with rooms and beds for the night. The princesses and Kunoichi were all sleeping in the same room, with the normal guard of samurai and the shinobi taking shifts at guard duties.

Hinata helped prepare the futons with some apprehension. Something wasn't right about this place. There was something fishy about the monk. He was old, and it didn't seem possible that he was capable of living alone, but he was the only person she could detect. There was also the fact that though the temple itself was falling apart, the monk seemed well fed and acquainted with wealth. She shared her reasoning with Sakura, who agreed something might be up, and Naruto and Choji. Naruto seemed unwilling to believe that such a nice old guy was up to something, but had agreed to the shift idea.

Hinata did a quick check of the building with her Byakugan. Nothing seemed out of place. Still, she couldn't shake her bad feeling.

Kyoko appeared beside her. "Ryou for your thoughts?"

"It's nothing." Hinata smiled, but in a distracted way.

"Alright." Kyoko shrugged. "I'm going to go get more food."

Hinata bit her lip. "Kyo, it might not be safe…" she said hesitantly.

"Oh, don't worry. I'm immune to most poisons. I've been building up my immunity since I was little" Kyoko grinned wryly.

"Oh." Hinata sighed, relieved.

"There wouldn't be anything wrong with the accommodations, would there?" Kyoko asked in a low voice.

"Of course not" Hinata replied.

"I'm not stupid, Hinata. There are five spies in the ranks of my samurai, each working for a different person." Kyoko recited a list of names "Make sure that none of them are left on guard tonight"

"Why do you keep them around if you know?" Hinata asked, a little shocked.

"Make a note of this, it's better to have a known spy in your ranks passing misinformation to whoever is paying them than to not know who's spying on you" Kyoko shrugged. "And because they are mostly good men, with the tendency to get a little drunk, but good men with families. Plus I know that Xiāo is capable of handling all five of them" Kyoko grinned, naming the only female guard in the ranks.

"I hadn't thought about it that way" Hinata said. Kyoko gave a crooked grin.

"It's been dead useful more than once. Anyways, I wouldn't worry about them."

"Alright" Hinata replied warily.

X

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Hinata rolled over again. She heard noises below. After discerning that she was not hearing normal night sounds, and further more that who ever was talking had no business doing so at a quarter to four in the morning, she made the hand signs to activate her Byakugan.

She located the speakers and started to lip read. It was the monk and a samurai who hadn't been named on Kyoko's list of spies, talking in a hidden room.

"Himemiya is not pleased by the arrangement." The monk said. "She wishes you to 'cut the ties' between them"

"It was easy enough to do so in the mountains, where no one except me brought fresh news, but now it will be harder to turn the princess against the heir apparent. It can be done, but it is a _very_ difficult job" the samurai said.

"And you'll be paid accordingly." The monk replied wearily. "You had better be worth it. And do it without a scandal on the heir apparent's part"

"Of course, sir" the samurai replied with a grin. "It would hardly do for Himemiya to trouble herself with arranging a marriage to another heir apparent. I'll get rid of the Suimei brat, of that you can be sure"

Hinata bit her lip as the man walked out of the room. She turned over again. The samurai was supposed to be on guard duty now. She couldn't afford to go back to sleep.

X

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X

"You look tired, Hinata." Kyoko commented the next morning.

Hinata smiled weakly. She meant to go to back to sleep after the guards changed shifts again, but she had ended up barely getting any sleep at all.

"Kyo, there's something I need to tell you" Hinata said quietly. Kyoko caught her meaning and ushered her over to a corner.

"What's up?"

"There's another spy" Hinata said urgently. "Who you don't know about. Kikkusuke. He was talking with the monk last night."

"Did he say who he was working for?" Kyoko asked.

"He only referred to his benefactor as 'Himemiya' only" Hinata said.

"Right. Figures that bitch would pull this." Kyoko said, shaking her head. "'Himemiya', 'Princess', was engaged to the heir apparent before me… Well, it's more to say that I broke them up. Anyways, that's not the point. The point is that she wants me safely out of the way. This does not surprise me." Kyoko shrugged. "Tell the others about the spies. And about that conversation. Also alert Xiāo. She'll tell everyone who needs to know within the ranks."

"Hai. I suggest that we leave as soon as possible" Hinata added.

"Point well taken. I'll give the orders." Kyoko nodded.

Within the half hour they were ready to depart, while the head monk nervously exclaimed that they were welcome to stay as long as they liked.

"Thank you, gracious sir, but we must press onwards." Kyoko said, for the first time every inch the princess. "I give you my blessings, and I will remember your kindness when I am married." She said with a benevolent smile.

As soon as they were on the way, she muttered "Pompous impotent bastard" and grinned wickedly at Hinata. Then she took out her cord work from the day before and started to work on it again.

X

X

X

By then end of that day's journey, they were only two days from reaching the capital. It would have taken less time to go by a main road, but the group of shinobi had decided that it was probably safer to go by a back roads route, to make it easier to deal with any betrayals.

As camp was being set up, two teenaged boys dressed in the black robes of the first rank waltzed across the camp and to the carriage that Kyoko rode in. None of the samurai made any fuss over this, so none of the Konoha nin did either, chalking it up to one more weird thing about Kyoko.

Inside the carriage, Kyoko untied the knotted letter and unfolded it. She read, snorting slightly. "Dear gods above, Fuyuzora, is this really the best you can do? Give me a break. Ah well, two points for effort."

Hinata, who was in the carriage guarding her, asked "What is it?"

"It's a love letter. 'Even the wind that rustles the leaves of the reeds is with me longer on it's lonely vigil.' Good god he's trite. Well, I suppose he's not the heir apparent just to sit around and write poetry." Kyoko shrugged.

"What's he like?"

"Huh?"

"The Heir apparent"

Kyoko smiled "Fuyuzora? Well, He's an idiot."

Hinata stopped.

"He's a good man, and he'll never be anyone's puppet, and he can't be bribed, and he wants what's best for the people, but he's a complete and utter idiot. I love him and I've waited for him for years and years- I never thought that we'd ever be together- but he's still an idiot" Kyoko admitted.

"My mom was friends with his mom, and we grew up together, but he never really noticed me that much, in- in that way. I was always waiting for him, and he never realized it… until it was almost too late. So I never thought that there was any possibility. But he's still, for all that, an idiot" Kyoko said. "What I was trying to say earlier was… just don't give up on Naruto. Know that he's an idiot, but accept him, all of him, and never give up. Because it's worth it" Kyoko smiled.

It hadn't occurred to Hinata that Kyoko might be trying to teach her something when she'd called Naruto an idiot. She'd thought that she was trying to discourage her, like so many others did.

"Arigauto." Hinata said.

"And I believe that he will definitely be Hokage" she added. She smiled widely.

"You haven't even seen him do anything" Hinata asked, perplexed.

"I don't need to see him fight. He's obviously trying to learn stuff whenever he listens to our conversations. He has spirit, and from what I've guessed about him, he wants to be Hokage for good reason. He has an excellent teacher, and…" Kyoko stopped "Well, Hinata believes in him, and from what I can see, she has good judgment." And smiled widely.

Hinata smiled. Kyoko stuck out her tongue. "Plus it makes a nice parallel." A lot of them, actually. "You two will make Konoha a place that I will definitely return to"

X

X

X

… I didn't know how to end this…

Anyways, I am very sorry that it took me WAY over deadline to get this finished… Our power went out, and then my muse died on me… I'm inspired now, though. I'm planning on updating again on the fifteenth… dies of exhaustion


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5 

"Oi! Naruto!" Kyoko called, hanging out the carriage window. "How much longer are we going to be on the road?"

"We're supposed to make camp within sight of the capital tonight. We should get there sometime tomorrow afternoon." Naruto yelled in reply.

"Have you no manners? Come over here if a lady wants to talk to you!" she called again. Naruto sighed and jogged over to the carriage. She poked his forehead.

"ITE! That hurts!" he exclaimed. Kyoko stuck out her tongue.

"It's to teach you sense. Hold out your hand" she said.

"Why?"

"So I can spit in it. Because I want to give you something, baka" Kyoko said, slightly exasperated.

"… Okay, I guess." Naruto said. She carefully put a thick woven bracelet in his hand.

"That's for you. You better wear it." she said.

"But why the colors?" he asked, examining the bracelet, which had three colors woven in it- a lavender tinted white, a dark blue, and black.

Ulterior motives, she thought, but instead replied "Because you wear bright orange all the time"

"What's wrong with orange?" he asked defensively.

She sighed dramatically. "You poor, colorblind thing." And then retreated back into the carriage.

He began to tie the bracelet on as she popped out of the carriage window again. He jumped. "Oh, and by the way, I better not be wasting my time and my silks on you. I'll take it back from you if you don't make it as Hokage"

He glared at her "Of course I'm going to be Hokage!"

"Good for you" she smiled. Then she withdrew into the carriage again. She smiled at Hinata, who was sitting in it with her again. "I have one for you too." She said, placing another into her hand. This one was yellow, bright orange and sky blue.

"Your ulterior motives are showing, Kyo" Hinata smiled and accepted the gift. "This wouldn't happen to be made around the red thread from earlier, would it?"

"Ah, Hinata-chan, you will make a great head. Of course it's made around the red thread." Kyoko smiled. "It's the red thread of fate"

"Kyo…" she blushed again.

"It'll happen. Give it time. And in return…" she grinned evily. "Well, did you know that dark haired people and blonde people can have redheaded children?"

"…No I didn't know that… but I don't understand what this has to do with…" Hinata's voice faltered.

"Yeah, it's true. My mom is blonde and my dad has jet black hair, and look at me" Kyoko said.

"Ano… your hair is black…" Hinata pointed out politely.

Kyoko's expression soured. "Oh right. I always forget about that… my hair color is a genjutsu. Black is more princess-like… people expect it…" she mumbled, sinking into her seat and not looking very princess-like at all.

Hinata gave her a sympathetic look. She knew better than anyone how she could be pressured into trying to look more like her station.

"Anyways," Kyoko ran a hand through her hair, looking unsettled. "… so dark haired people and blonde people can have redheaded kids. If you ever have a redhead, you should name them after me" she grinned. Hinata smiled in return. "My real name is Kyokki, by the way, I've always been some form of Kyo." Then she squealed. "How adorable would that be… a little redhead with Byakugan named 'Kyo' running around Konoha…"

Hinata blushed and smiled but said nothing. "You know, silence is taken as agreement in the daimyo's court." Kyoko pointed out.

"I'm going to get some exercise, Kyo" Hinata said, choosing not to reply to Kyo's comment. She opened the carriage door and jumped out from it.

Naruto was at the back of the train, doing the difficult job of rear guard. He smiled at her as she ran up to him, making her heart flutter.

"Oi, did she give you a bracelet too?" Naruto asked, seeing the thick band around Hinata's wrist.

"Hai." Hinata smiled, still a bit red. He grabbed her hand to look at it.

"Aw man, she called me colorblind for liking orange." He exclaimed. "Man, that troublesome princess"

"I…" Hinata stuttered a little at the slight pressure of his fingers on her hand. "I think she has a lot of faith in you" Hinata said. Naruto stopped walking. Hinata turned to face him. "Is it that big of a surprise?"

"She always acts like I'm a little kid or something" Naruto said, putting a hand behind his head.

"I think that she's just trying to teach you something in her own way" Hinata said.

"Eh, maybe. But whenever you guys talk about stuff, you always do a much better job of explaining it to me" Naruto said.

"I work with the children of my clan. I had to learn how to make things easy to understand… not that you're a little kid or anything" she added hastily.

"Yeah, definitely not" Naruto flexed his muscles.

That's when someone near the front of the train screamed. They looked at each other and ran.

"KAGE BUSHIN NO JUTSU!" Naruto yelled, as ten or twelve clones popped into thin air.

"BYAKUGAN!" Hinata yelled simultaneously. The veins around her eye popped.

"YAH!"

"SHANNARO!"

By the time they got to the front of the carriage, there was already what looked like a battlefield in front of the supply wagon. Sakura was batting enemies like flies, leaving huge dents in their armor, and Xiāo was swinging away with her sword.

"BAKA! Only Choji's left to guard them!" Sakura yelled at the pair of shinobi "GO BACK!" and then she half muttered a curse as a few of the enemy soldiers slipped past the line of defense.

"Naruto-kun, go back and defend the princesses, the clones will hold out for now" Hinata said swiftly. Naruto looked a little awed at how she was able to give an order, but he started to head back to the carriages at top speed.

Hinata didn't bother to look back at them as she slid into Jyuuken stance. It was going to be harder to fight the heavily armored men, since it was hard to transfer chakra through metal, but Hinata was able to find weaker spots in the armor to use to her advantage.

One of the samurai charged towards her. She opted to deliver a chakra-spiked kick to the underside of his jaw. He fainted, coughing up blood. As she was regaining her balance on her feet, another man came up from behind her and tried to hold her arms. She then used one of the chakra holes on her back to deliver enough chakra to his system to knock him down, choking.

She had just enough time to secure her feet firmly to the ground with chakra before Sakura used one of her super-powered punches to shake the enemy's footing. As men went down, Hinata was able to keep them there with hits to their unprotected necks.

"U"

"ZU"

"MA"

"KI"

"NARUTO RENDAN!" she heard Naruto's clones shout. The man hit the ground, nearly hitting her.

"Gomen ne!" one of them yelled. Hinata nodded and smiled as she took down another man.

Back at the carriages, Naruto had taken down all his enemies. Choji was doing well, by the looks of things, considering he'd just knocked down five men with gigantic arms. Then Nyoko screamed and fell out of the carriage door, apparently twisting her ankle as she did so. Choji was distracted, so one of his enemies took advantage of that.

Naruto started running over to the princess as a ninja wearing a chuunin vest and a Kumo headband busted through the side of the carriage.

Behind him he heard the door of the other carriage being broken down, and he stopped, indecisive.

Nyoko flinched as she tried to crawl away from the attacker, trying to hold her ankle. The Kumo nin grinned and drew a Kunai.

Naruto heard crashing behind him. What the hell was he supposed to do?

He saw Nyoko smile, a slight grin, and then shout "Katon: Gokakyu no jutsu!" and leap to her feet as the shinobi dodged the fireball. She shed all but the last two layers of her twelve layer kimono for more mobility and drew a sword that she'd apparently been hiding under them. "Naruto-kun! I can handle this punk, make sure Nee-chan is okay" she yelled, not taking her eyes off her enemy.

Naruto nodded, seeing that Choji and Nyoko seemed to be handling things well enough, and turned and ran back to help Kyoko.

"KYOKO! ARE YOU-!" he yelled, nearly tearing the door off it's hinges, and stopping as an unsheathed sword greeted him.

She jumped out gracefully, holding a Naginata. "I was handling it." she said, wiping a fleck of blood from her cheek with her hand. Then she extended the Naginata over his right shoulder "Don't move" she said, deadly serious as she cut open an attacker's shoulder. He fell to the ground.

"Kage Bushin no jutsu would be real good right now. Try not to kill the bastards" Kyoko suggested. He nodded.

"TAJU KAGE BUSHIN NO JUTSU!" he yelled, filling the road with clones. He personally took down the attacker from the carriage, also a Kumo nin.

He sent a few clones to help Choji, who seemed once again to be in control. Actually, considering that he was in a rage, someone had probably called him fat. The poor stupid fool.

Nyoko, standing behind Choji, bit her thumb. "Fuck this, Kuchiyose no Jutsu! Come on out, Cha!" she said audibly

Oh god. Tea? Naruto allowed himself to be momentarily distracted in order to watch the spectacle.

Aka grinned smugly as a cloud of smoke appeared. When it cleared, she appeared atop a brown cow that had four horns and was twenty feet tall. "SQUISH THEM LIKE BUGS, CHA!" she then laughed psychotically as the cow started stepping on the enemies.

Alright, they had it handled, Naruto decided. He distinctly heard Kyoko mutter "God, that is just like her- got a problem? Summon a giant cow" before he started fighting again.

After that, the fighting died down. A bunch of Naruto clones, a giant cow, and an enraged Choji apparently made quick work of attackers. The guys had finished helping Kyoko into Nyoko's carriage to make room for any wounded in the other carriage and had secured all the enemies that hadn't fled or been killed in the fighting, Hinata walked back to them.

"Sakura-chan sent me, she's busy healing the wounded." Hinata exclaimed.

"You're okay?" Naruto asked, concerned.

"Hai" Hinata looked away and subconsciously touched her side.

"If any of them hurt you, I'll kick their asses." Naruto said angrily. Kyoko heard this from inside the carriage and smiled.

"No, it's nothing." Hinata said. "Kyoko-hime, Xiāo wants to know what to do with the prisoners."

From inside the carriage the princess replied "I want to question them myself." And then got out of the carriage. "Nyoko, you come too" she said. "I don't want our guard split up again." The younger sister promptly jumped out of the carriage to the ground.

The small group walked to the front of the train, the shinobi tense. They reached the place where Sakura was bust healing wounds and Xiāo was overseeing the prisoners.

"Kyoko-hime! You're not suppose to walk anywhere!" the woman exclaimed.

"It doesn't matter now. We were left alone, there wasn't anyone to carry us." Kyoko replied. "Are these the prisoners?"

"Hai"

Kyoko drew herself up to her full height and picked out Himemiya's spy among the prisoners. "Kikkusuke, I thought the plan was to turn my thoughts against Fuyuzora, not to take my life." She said fiercely.

"You… knew" he said, and hung his head, ashamed.

"Of course I knew. It's my business to know, you traitor. I should have your head for this" Kyoko said icily. "You were a fool to underestimate Konoha shinobi"

"I have no idea what Himemiya was thinking!" he insisted "I was only supposed to… I was never told to kill you" he said. Kyoko's brown eyes flashed.

"Well, apparently Himemiya is more of a traitor than you." Kyoko hissed. Then she asked Xiāo without bothering to turn to face her "What is the price to pay for treachery?"

"To be crucified and then beheaded. His corpse shall be paraded around the streets and fed to the dogs. He is not allowed to commit seppuku." She said. Kyoko nodded. She gripped her Naginata harder, and raised it.

There was complete silence. "No." Kyoko lowered her blade "I have a better idea. You can tell that bitch of a princess the last message that she shall ever receive from me." She told the spy. He bowed his head.

"You can tell her that she may either commit seppuku, and die with honor, or she'll be banished to the court in Yuki no Kuni, to serve under it's ambassador for the rest of her miserable days." Kyoko said. Then she turned her back on him.

"We'll present the others to the Daimyo. He'll decide what to do with them… as for the Kumo nin, would you mind taking them back to Konoha? Tsunade-sama should be able to deal with them. Tell her to remind the Raikage that such a move against the Daimyo could be considered an act of war, and he had better watch his shinobi more carefully" Kyoko asked the Konoha ninja. They nodded. Kyoko smiled benevolently. "Good."

Within the hours they were on the road again, Kikkusuke having been knocked unconscious by Naruto to wake up a few hours later and presumably deliver the message to Himemiya.

The princesses and the Konoha nin were all sitting in the same carriage, Choji lying down, as he was still a little chakra drained from using his techniques, and his head was resting on Nyoko's lap. She was looking out the window. Across from them, Sakura was sitting next to Naruto, who was sitting next to Hinata, who was sitting next to Kyoko.

"How much longer will it take to get to the capital now?" Kyoko asked Naruto.

"We'll probably arrive at the capital in the early evening." Naruto replied. "Geez, stop being so impatient."

Kyoko raised and eyebrow and then started bouncing up and down on the seat impatiently. "Why can't we go faster?"

"Because, we have a train full of wounded people. And the fact that your ladies-in-waiting fainted doesn't help." He snapped back.

"Oh come on, leave them out of it. You guys just piled them up like so much perfumed cordwood. We don't have to slow down for them" Kyo sighed. "And Hinata and Sakura fixed how many of the wounded up?"

"All of them" Nyoko said.

"That was a rhetorical question" Choji pointed out.

"Anyways, we're going as fast as we can go, just leave me alone" Naruto replied.

"I am simply taking advantage of the fact that you declared that you were going to be the mission leader." Kyoko replied haughtily.

Naruto brooded at this statement. Hinata smiled gently "I think she just wants to see her Fiancé" she whispered in his ear.

"I heard that" Kyoko said, blushing. "You have clearly not considered that I am simply tired of life on the road."

Everyone in the carriage rolled their eyes. At least this shut Kyoko up, as she declined to add anything else, opting to cross her arms and look out the window, still blushing.

"Why did you choose to punish that guy like that?" Naruto asked curiously.

"Kikkusuke? Because." Kyoko shrugged. "First of all, I wouldn't put it above Himemiya to do my work for me when he delivers his message, and second because he has a wife and four kids, and his wife is pregnant with triplets. He has one son and if he received the full punishment for traitors, his son would bear the weight as well. He wouldn't be able to commit seppuku either, and he'd be buried without honor." Kyoko shrugged.

"But is it safe to just leave Himemiya like that?" Hinata asked.

"Of course it is. You've never met Himemiya, nor will you, and I hope the same holds true for Yuki no Kuni's ambassador. Himemiya would never commit seppuku. She's too much of a coward. And the lady ambassador can think of much better ways to punish her that I can be bothered to. It's much more effective" Kyoko shrugged again.

The carriage was silent, imaging what type of person the ambassador might be. "So… this ambassador is… scary?"

Kyoko laughed wryly. Nyoko, on the other hand, appeared to be close to tears. "She's beyond scary" Nyoko managed to say.

There was another pause.

"And now is an excellent time to talk of other things." Kyoko said.

"I think we were talking about the specialization of techniques suited to bloodline limits" Hinata volunteered.

"Oh, right." Kyoko shrugged.

"Well, it makes sense, doesn't it?" Sakura piped up.

"Well, of course. If your clan has an advantage over other clans, then you should take advantage of that. It'd be like the Aburame not using their bugs for surveillance." Choji said.

"But if you take the specialization of techniques too far, then you end up isolating your clan from the rest of your village" Kyoko pointed out.

"On the other hand, if you don't rely on specialization and making sure only your clan can use it, what's the point? The Uchiha clan made a lot of Katon jutsu that was suited to anyone with a fire affinity, and now everyone uses them" Sakura volunteered. Naruto and Choji shared a wry grin, knowing who Sakura's heart and mind still centered around.

"Well, at least your techniques don't die out." Kyoko argued.

"But clans are largely about image, and if you take your legacy with you to the grave, then that makes you-" Nyoko started

"Dead. It makes you dead." Kyoko replied.

The conversation progressed from there, with everyone participating. Even Naruto managed to surprise the group with coming up with a few points.

"Alright, well, I'm not saying it'll happen, but suppose, just suppose, that someone were able to memorize a map of chakra nodes, they could use Jyuuken." Kyoko said. "You just need to use chakra-spiked blows, right?"

"No, Jyuuken is different from just normal blows. The whole point of Jyuuken is to attack the internal organs, and normal blows don't do that." Hinata said firmly.

"Yeah, yeah, I remember that. Jyuuken feels different than getting pummeled with chakra-spiked punches" Naruto said, having experienced both (He'd annoyed Jiraiya to the point of getting a Rasengan in the stomach quite a few times on their travels).

Kyoko sighed, the closest she ever got to actually conceding defeat. "Okay, okay, perhaps my theory is not correct in practice, but it works on paper"

"No it doesn't" Naruto replied. "Jyuuken is different, like Hinata said. You're still trying to attack the body with chakra-spiked blows, and Jyuuken is attacking the chakra network."

_He remembers that much from his match with Neji?_ Hinata wondered.

Kyoko sighed exasperatedly. "Alright, alright. But me being wrong does not in the slightest detract from my charm, good looks, and intelligence" she flashed a grin.

The carriage bumped to a stop. "Kyoko-hime? It's time to stop for the night." A voice said from outside the carriage.

"Alright" Kyoko said. "You guys go ahead and help set up for the night, okay?"

The assembled shinobi stretched as much as their cramped space would allow. Choji sat up, still a little wobbly, though if it was from chakra drain or laying down for so long was anyone's guess.

They stretched more, backs cracking loudly, and then they got to work. Neither Hinata nor Naruto realized that they'd gotten into the habit of pairing off, though Sakura chuckled appreciatively.

Still slightly oblivious, Naruto and Hinata continued their conversation, which didn't last long, as they had similar thoughts about the subject. By the time they set up their first tent, they had moved onto other subjects.

"So… how do you plan on changing Hyuuga? Once you're Hokage, I mean?" Hinata asked.

"I'll outlaw the cursed seal" Naruto said. Hinata sweat dropped.

"Well… I mean… if you wanted me to, I could… ano… tell you how to do that" Hinata said. "There's a law in the laws of Konoha that specifies that the Hokage can't interfere in Hyuuga clan affairs, however…" she started to explain the bylaws and loopholes that he could use to his advantage.

He looked interested, and he asked questions that were easy to answer. It was… (for lack of a better word) nice… to be talking with him as an equal. It wasn't him declaring his undying love for her and proceeding to rain kisses upon her lips, but she was still getting a pleasant tingly feeling all over the back of her neck. He was watching her, and he was listening to her.

Naruto was having similar thoughts. Hinata had changed, a lot, and once he'd gotten past the more obvious physical changes, he'd noticed the less obvious things too. Like the way she had of explaining things to him so they clicked- something even Iruka had only ever been able to do on a few occasions. Her old gesture that was certainly making less appearances than it used to, but was undeniably cute. She'd make a good clan head one day. Surely all she has to do was wheedle a little and poke her fingers together and-

"GAH!" He tripped over his own feet and face planted into the ground, Icha Icha visions running rampant through his head.

"Are you okay?" Hinata asked, helping him up.

"Fine" he replied, embarrassed.

X

X

X

Once again, I had no idea where to end this. Bet you couldn't tell. (Aha.)


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6 

"What the hell did you do to your hair?" Naruto asked, bewildered, as Kyoko stepped out of her room the next morning.

"I did absolutely nothing to it" Kyoko replied lazily. Her hair was now a vibrant burgundy, and she was running her hands through it contentedly.

"IT'S RED" Naruto pointed out.

"No. It's not" Kyoko replied, deadpan.

"…" Naruto was thrown for a loop momentarily. "YES IT IS!" he yelled, waving his arms.

"Naruto-san" Kyoko said, badly acting the part of the broken hearted maiden. Her lashes dampened with tears. "To think that Naruto-san considers me a liar… or worse yet, too stupid to comprehend my own hair color." She sighed unhappily. "What have I done to give Naruto-san this impression?"

"… Um…You're really fucking weird, you know that, right?" Naruto asked.

Kyoko gave him the evil eye and then grinned in spite of herself "And you're no fun at all"

Hinata fiddled with her bracelet and smiled.

"WHAT'D YOU DO TO YOUR HAIR!" he asked again, his voice raised.

"Not a single thing" Kyoko replied stubbornly. "I just took off the genjutsu. Honestly, you know what a pain it would be to dye my hair?"

"Why did you?" Hinata asked.

"Because." Kyoko grinned wryly. "I need to be myself, even if the cost of that is looking a little less princess-like."

The sun was just beginning to set as they entered the capital. The onset of the noise of the crowds, the smells of venders hawking their wares, and the bright flashes of color washed over them like a wave.

The train become sort of a parade after a few blocks, which was nice but also a security hazard, especially with as many captives as they had. Naruto ended up having to make shadow clones to police the whole area.

The carriage made it's way up the main street and to the gate of the palace, where it glided smoothly inside.

The gates closed with a heavy thud behind the train, and the shinobi simultaneously breathed a sigh of relief. The train started to break up into little groups, with the prisoners going in one direction and the princess's carriage going in the other way.

The carriage bumped to a stop in the middle of a small courtyard filled with climbing bushes. Naruto jumped out first, helping the others out of the small space.

As Kyoko emerged from the carriage trailing her robes like butterfly wings, there was the sound of a door sliding open and footsteps on the wooden porch.

"Oh god" Kyoko put her hand to her forehead as a boy, perhaps three years older than herself, with long dark blond hair in a ponytail came running out to greet them.

"KYOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" he yelled, proceeding to jump off the porch-

-and fall face first into the dirt. "Ite…"

"Fuyuzora!" Kyoko forgot herself and rushed over to him. "Are you okay?"

He promptly unstuck his face from the dirt and kissed her. She flushed bright red and punched him in the stomach. "BAKA! What the hell was that for?"

"Ite… You've been training, that hurt" Fuyuzora commented.

"You're an idiot. I'm a lady. Ladies don't train" she said, and them helped him off the ground. She cleared her throat "Chouji, Hinata, Sakura, Naruto, this is Fuyuzora, my fiancé. Fuyuzora, this is Akimichi Chouji, Hyuuga Hinata, Haruno Sakura, and Uzumaki Naruto." Fuyuzora let his eyes rest briefly on each of them, bowing politely. He startled almost imperceptibly when it came to Naruto, but made no remark. "They saved my life, and Nyoko's."

"What happened?" he asked, snaking his arm around her shoulders.

"Himemiya happened, that's what happened" Kyoko hissed, stepping out of his grasp.

"You mean Te-"

"You call her by first name?" Kyoko narrowed her eyes.

A pained look crossed his face. There was an awkward and increasingly angry silence culminating. Until Naruto piped up.

"Hey, stop picking on him! You were all goo-goo eyed over him for the entire trip up here!" Naruto said.

As Kyoko turned her wrath on him, Fuyuzora shot him a look that clearly said "I would bear your children if that were anatomically possible"

"-NOT MAKING GOO-GOO EYES! AND FURTHER MORE-"

"Nee-san, stop making an idiot of yourself." Nyoko sighed. Kyoko stopped and seemed to remember herself.

She then cleared her throat and said "Excuse me. Welcome to our home." She said to the shinobi. Then she turned to Fuyuzora "I'm glad to be back, Fuyu-kun" and gave him a peck on the cheek. "I believe I'll go get us settled in. Would you find a place to accommodate the boys, please?"

"Sure." Fuyuzora smiled. Kyoko hid her blush behind her sleeves.

"Hinata-chan, Sakura-chan, Nyo, come on. I want to make sure everything is ready."

"Hai" the others chorused, and followed after the princess.

"Ne, are you really gonna be okay, marrying her?" Naruto asked under his breath.

"Yeah, she's great, isn't she?" Fuyuzora sighed.

"Are you two talking about the same person?" Choji asked, taking out a bag of chips and starting to munch on them.

Fuyuzora smiled and completely ignored the question "Here, there are some rooms you can use in this wing. Let's go find some"

He led the way down a long hallway. Naruto and Choji were both admiring the palace. It wasn't anything like what they'd seen in Konoha.

"Why are there so many halls and stuff? Doesn't that make it hard to get to places?" Naruto asked.

"Don't tell Kyo that. She'll get started on one of her very favorite rants. Last time I saw her, it was two and a half hours long, and that was three years ago." Fuyuzora grinned. "It's because in the imperial courts, a true lady doesn't show her face, sometimes not even to her husband or lovers. It's weird. They're supposed to only be seen by other women. Dunno why. So everyone is screened in here, including me whenever I have meetings with the daimyo."

This was a difficult idea for Naruto to cope with, considering he'd grown up seeing the faces of the Hokages every single day of his life. "But that's weird. How do the people trust you?"

"Some of them don't. I intend on fixing some of the traditions. Probably forgo the use of clan names all together. No more screens, though that'll take more time." Fuyuzora shrugged nonchalantly.

"Why no clan names?" Choji asked.

"Eh, it's complicated. Clan names reveal too much, and they put unneeded pressure on people. Take Kyo. Kyo's father was a Fuyu, a family that never married into the imperial line when there still was one. Her mom is from the Suimei line, making Kyo a Suimei, because the Suimei name was only ever inherited by the eldest daughter of a family from a Suimei mother. Nyoko is a Yuka'ku. The Yuka'ku were a matriarchal clan of performers- people of the arts. Her dad's mom was a Yuka'ku, who inherit the family name through the youngest daughter. Since Kyo and Nyoko's aunt doesn't have kids and won't, probably, Nyoko inherited the name as well. However, she was also adopted into the Yamayuri line. The Yamayuri are a major factor at court, the intermediary between the Suimei and Myoujou, another clan with almost completely opposite views from the Suimei. The Myoujou and Suimei families were founded under different dynasties, so they've been enemies forever. And they weren't even originally of imperial blood. The original imperial families are the Nekai and the Sukuru, both of which are very complicated. Anyway… Clan names are really hard to deal with, and create all this drama." Fuyuzora shrugged.

"Eh?" Naruto asked.

"Never mind." Fuyuzora smiled. "But if you're going to be Hokage, you should know this stuff."

"How do you know that?" Naruto asked.

"Kyo's cryptic replies to my letters and a hunch." Fuyuzora smiled.

"A hunch?" Naruto tilted his head.

"It's nothing" Fuyuzora smiled.

He'd been six when he's seen Yondaime, the only time he'd ever met the man said to be the greatest Hokage, but he could remember the visit clearly. His mom and Kyo's mother, Hotaru, had both made a big deal over it, which back then meant getting dressed in uncomfortable clothes, but even though Yondaime had been busy, he'd stopped to play with them, albeit briefly. He'd complemented Kyo on her hair, and he'd made Fuyuzora promise to be a good daimyo.

It felt weird to have the roles reversed. Then again, Fuyuzora reasoned, that was assuming that Naruto really was related to Yondaime, which there wasn't any proof of, but still…

"Ano…" the three boys looked up, expecting to see Hinata, and were surprised to see Nyoko "Choji-kun, I need some help with something…"

"Sure…" Choji put away his chips and followed her.

Fuyuzora looked after her sadly. "Ack, my poor imoto."

"What?" Naruto asked.

"Look, when a girl comes up to a guy all stuttery and cute like that, what does it mean?" Fuyuzora said patiently.

"Ano… that… she's nervous about something?" Naruto asked.

"And why would a girl with everything, status, good looks, money, and all that be nervous and blushing around a guy when she has every reason to be confident?" Fuyuzora coaxed.

"Because she… wait… are you trying to say that Nyoko has a crush on him?" Naruto asked.

"Give the man a prize." Fuyuzora said. "And that sucks for her."

"Why?" Naruto asked.

"Because." Fuyuzora said. "She's going to be getting married sometime soon. Anyway, let's not talk about this"

"Huh?" Naruto looked confused. "Then what is there to talk about?"

"You, for one, Rokudaime-sama." Fuyuzora grinned. "You have a-" he held up his pinky "girlfriend?"

"Me? Nah…" Naruto blushed. "I mean, I'm… you know… I don't have time for that sort of stuff."

Fuyuzora's eyebrows raised. "And you're Jiraiya-sama's student? Shouldn't you be doing the wiggly fingers by now?"

"EH? No, I'm not like Ero-Sennin!" Naruto protested.

"You call him that to his face?" Fuyuzora laughed. "That sounds…" he nearly said "familiar" but switched words midway "funny. I love his books."

"You too?" Naruto asked.

X

X

X

_"I am the most influential man in the world!" Jiraiya shouted to the sky._

_"Right…" Naruto looked up at his mentor, worn out from training._

_"It's true!" Jiraiya laughed. "You'll see someday!"_

X

X

X

"He was right." Naruto said dejectedly. "Oh well, at least Gaara doesn't read his crap"

In Suna, Gaara sneezed as he turned a page in the third volume of Icha Icha Tactics.

"GAARA! ARE YOU READING THAT FUCKING FILTHY BOOK AGAIN?"

"No…" Gaara replied to Temari as he hid the book in his robes.

"Oh, come on, they're actually pretty good… then again, you're awfully young to be reading them" Fuyuzora teased as he pulled out a familiar orange covered book.

"The latest one is boring anyway." Naruto muttered.

Fuyuzora laughed. "I was kidding, Jeez." He grinned widely. "Hey, Rokudaime, I want to show you something"

"Eh?" Naruto asked.

"It's this way." Fuyuzora led him down a hallway. "It's just past the Daimyo's bedchamber."

They passed a large, ornate door with the kanji for "fire" in gold leaf. Fuyuzora nodded at it and explained that the Daimyo's door was over six centuries old and had more jutsu attached to it than any other object in the country.

"It's over here" Fuyuzora said, turning around a corner into a door. This one had the leaf symbol carved into it. Fuyuzora slid open the door cheerfully.

"This is the Hokage's bedroom for whenever one comes to visit.."

"Eh?"

"The Daimyo keeps it reserved for the Hokage. Every single Hokage has stayed in this room. So this is where you'll stay someday, Rokudaime-sama."

"Whoa" Naruto looked around the room. Five hanging scrolls were lined up on the wall, but otherwise there was no decoration. The bed was nice, though, and there was a desk against a window, overlooking a courtyard. There was also a small bookcase in the corner, with old looking manuscripts.

Naruto took a step forward, and the floor squeaked. "Eh? This floorboard's squeaky"

"Nope. This is a nightingale floor. It squeaks so no one can get to the bed without being heard. Assignation prevention; every bedroom has one. As far as I've heard, only Yondaime has ever managed to cross soundlessly. Although that was because he body-flickered across." Fuyuzora said. "Kyo and I used to always play here, trying to get across it without making a sound. Neither of us ever made it."

Naruto was testing out the floor eagerly. He only ever managed to get a couple of steps before the floor squeaked, and then he had to start over from the beginning. Fuyuzora smiled absentmindedly and crossed the floor to the bookcase, taking out a collection of writings by Konoha's yellow flash.

"HA!" Naruto said suddenly. He put more weight on his foot and the floorboards squeaked. Loudly. "DAMN!"

Fuyuzora chuckled and Naruto started over.

"So why are you marrying Kyo?" Naruto asked.

"Because I love her, duh" Fuyuzora said happily.

"No, I mean, like, when did you start wanting to marry her? _Why_ did you start wanting to?" Naruto asked.

"Oh, that?" Fuyuzora said. "Well, how do I explain it? It was like, when we were little we used to play together, and she was always there for me. I wanted to protect her, because she was like my little sister, except Nyoko was also like my little sister, but… in a different way. Then we got a bit older, and she stopped talking to me, she'd just watch me. I started ignoring her, because there were pretty girls and girls who talked louder than her and girls my family wanted me to marry. And through it all, every once in awhile, I'd notice her watching me, and it was stranger when she _wasn't_ watching me." Fuyuzora blushed and smiled at the memory.

"And that's when she got engaged and went to go stay with her maternal grandmother for awhile. I was thirteen and she was ten. And it was the loneliest feeling, because… well, her eyes used to always be on me, but then suddenly there wasn't someone watching me. I had never realized until then how much I loved the feeling of her watching me, and that, really, I wanted, more than anything, to just have her eyes on me for the rest of my life. Mind you, it took me two years to figure this out. I'm slow when it comes to stuff like that."

"Wow." Naruto said. "Wait, she was engaged?"

"Yep." Fuyuzora said. "To a courtier set to inherit a governorship from his grandpa, whose little brother is the current head of the army."

"There's an army?" Naruto asked. "Why, if the Daimyo has ninja?"

"Because only the Daimyo is allowed to deploy shinobi troops. All other nobles raise their own armies from volunteers from their lands, and the Daimyo's generals oversee them. Anyway, setting that aside…"

"Right, so how'd she get unengaged?" Naruto asked.

"He got disowned by his family." Fuyuzora said. "Started going against his family politics, and so the wedding was canceled. She was sent back to court while they decided what was going to happen to her. And I got to see her again, and suddenly she wasn't this little girl anymore, she was beautiful. I mean, back before she was engaged, I'd thought other girls were prettier than her, and suddenly she's standing in front of me, big brown innocent eyes wide, and me in the midst of my awkward teenage years…" Fuyuzora looked embarrassed.

"At this time they were considering hooking me up with a girl called Tea-hime, with imperial blood in her and stuff. She called –calls- herself 'Himemiya'"

"Ah! That girl! The one who attacked us!" Naruto exclaimed suddenly, pieces of the puzzle suddenly fitting together.

"Yes, that girl." Fuyuzora said sheepishly. "Anyway, seeing the two of them, and comparing them, Himemiya and Kyo, even with everything Himemiya had going for her, I kept thinking… 'I want Kyo'. Of course at that point I was still too stupid to realize that she liked me. I thought it was hopeless, and so I kept chasing Himemiya."

"And fast forward a couple of years, I find myself about to be engaged to Himemiya. And one morning I just wake up and think 'Why the hell am I doing this? Do I want to spend the rest of my life with this girl who only thinks of herself, who isn't going to be able to help me run the country?' and that day four things happened. One, I finally put my feelings together, and I realized that if I wanted to protect Kyo, but felt differently about her than my other 'little sisters', and if I wanted her watching me for the rest of my life, and I'd been having… fantasies about her, and comparing Himemiya to her in everything and finding Tea-hime, who was supposed to have everything, lacking. And I realized that it might be wonderful to have the person I'd been chasing fall for me, but even better if… if someone who had been watching me forever, when I wasn't showing off, and who liked me for just being me, were to be the one… If I were to fall for her, wouldn't that be even better?" Fuyuzora said awkwardly.

Something in those last words struck a chord with Naruto. _Someone who's been watching me forever…_

_She was always watching you_, Naruto thought, and then realized that he was remembering the words, not thinking them, but he couldn't quite recall who had spoken them or about who.

"Anyway, after my big realization, I went and confessed to her, the second thing that happened that day, and the most mortifying experience of my life, and she told me…" he paused, lips parted, just barely open, eyes glazed as he sat, remembering. "She said 'I've been watching you since forever. Every single day I watched you because I was afraid that one day, it would be the last time I could see you, and I didn't want that day to come.'" Fuyuzora said, bliss filling his face. "That day, in front of all the Daimyo's court and his cabinet of war and a couple of ambassadors and Himemiya, I said 'I want to marry Kyo.' And just watched every face change to an expression of shock. And now I'm finally getting that chance." Fuyuzora said. The he laughed. "That must have sounded so cheesy. I'm sorry."

Naruto felt odd. There was something bothering him, something having to do with that memory…

"Ah, it's fine" Naruto said quickly. Then he went back to trying to get across the nightingale floor.

"What's that?" Sakura asked as there was another musical squeak from another wing.

"Hm… an E-flat rising to an A-sharp. That'll be the Hokage's bedroom. Someone's on the nightingale floor." Kyoko replied, taking a wedding gift out of its wrappings. "Oh, wow. This has got to be the gaudiest, ugliest Bhudda I've seen in a _long_ time" she remarked.

Hinata was inclined to agree. Bhudda did not need to have huge, tacky diamond eyes. But she said instead "It's Fuyuzora-sama and Naruto-kun" after briefly checking with her Byakugan, and handed Kyoko another gift.

"Oh, it's from Maki!" Kyoko said excitedly. "Maki's my cousin, she's such a sweetie." she explained. "Ooh! She gave me new robes! How pretty! These must have taken forever!"

"Oh, dang it. She made these thinking about me with black hair." Kyoko said disappointedly. "They're all purple. Eh, they might work…"

"Hey, Hinata-chan should try them on." Sakura suggested.

"Oh, you're so right!" Kyoko clapped excitedly. "You try them on!"

"Ano… I don't think…"

"Oh, come on, please?" Kyoko begged. "I'll make Sakura wear some too"

"Eh? No, wait…" Sakura protested weakly.

"Here's the perfect thing for you, Sakura-chan" Kyoko dug through a trunk and pulled out robes that went from white to red.

"Kyoko-hime? What do you want to do with this?" one of Kyoko's ladies-in-waiting asked.

"Ah, that goes in the other room." Kyoko said. Then she turned back to the kunoichi. "I'm going to go put that up, and Hikari-san here will help you two get dressed."

"Kyoko-hime?" the lady-in-waiting asked.

"The ones laid out." Kyoko said, moving to the other room on her knees.

"Hai," Hikari said.

Kyoko made sure to wait long enough for Hinata and Sakura to get dressed before going back into the other room.

"Hey! You two look good!" Kyoko squealed.

The purple robes Hinata wore were a deep almost indigo, with the top kimono decorated with a design of black feathers falling to the hem. The under robes went from mauve to a very light lavender on the bottom. Sakura's started pink, with the last one a gauzy white over blood red.

"How do you move in this thing?" Sakura asked.

"Just make sure you aren't walking on the fabric." Hikari said, arranging the skirts to flow majestically as they walked.

"This is ridiculous." Sakura said.

"It's fun." Kyoko corrected. "You look good. Both of you."

Hinata blushed. The twelve-layer wasn't much different she wore to council meetings, but she liked it better.

The floorboards in the Hokage's room squeaked again, giving Kyoko an idea. "Let's go see Fuyuzora, I can get this stuff put away later."

"Demo-" Hinata started to say.

"Oh, come one, how many other opportunities are you going to have to talk to the Daimyo?" Kyoko said.

The door of the Hokage's bedroom swung open. "Hey, guys! I knew you'd be up here" Kyoko said happily. "Where's Chouji-kun?"

"Nyoko needed his help" Fuyuzora said, looking up from his book. "Hey! You look good."

"Yeah, I forced them into twelve layer. I think they look good, too." Kyoko crossed the floor daintily, if noisily, and sat next to him. "Did you say he was with Nyoko?"

"DAMN!" Naruto said as a floorboard squeaked. "You guys distracted me!" he looked at Sakura and Hinata, standing in the doorframe.

"What are you doing, Naruto?" Sakura asked.

"I'm trying to get across this damn thing." Naruto said.

"Why?" Sakura asked.

Naruto thought for a second. "Because no one else has."

"Typical" Sakura said under her breath.

"Ano…" Hinata said.

"Huh?" Naruto asked.

"It's just… try the floorboard two from your right foot, about a centimeter from the joint of the wood." Hinata suggested.

Naruto put his foot down gingerly. There was no squeak. "YES! Thanks, Hinata-chan!"

Sakura grinned, amused, but stopped talking to Naruto. She instead watched Kyoko as the princess drew a length of nearly invisible thread out of her sleeve and ran chakra through it, making it worm imperceptibly towards Naruto's right ankle.

"Too cliché?" she asked Fuyuzora.

He rolled his eyes.

"I don't think so." Sakura said, Kyoko's evil plan becoming clearer.

Naruto paid absolutely no attention to the conspirators, and instead asked Hinata where she though he should try next.

"Up five, on your right." Hinata suggested.

"AWESOME!" Naruto jumped onto the bed, and the thread flashed in the sunlight. Only the three watchers noticed.

"Great, Rokudaime, now you can assassinate yourself" Fuyuzora grinned.

"Eh?" Naruto go off the bed. "Oh, crap, I messed it up…" he started fumbling with the heavy covers, not noticing the fine filament that he had wrapped around his ankles.

Hinata crossed the floor to stand beside him and gently helped him fix the bed.

For a fraction of a second, Kyoko basked in the moment. They just looked so… she gave a gentle and unusual smile. And then her expression turned evil. She pulled the thread.

Time slowed. Naruto tripped and fell against Hinata. He managed to push out a hand to steady himself, so he didn't fall on top of her.

He noticed that she was wearing a twelve layer, something that somehow hadn't registered before. He wondered if twelve layers were hot- surely they had to be.

_No they aren't, stupid. They're made out of thin silk._ A voice in his head said.

How did he know that?

Oh yeah. Because they were transparent.

And he knew that because he happened to be getting a rather nice shot of Hinata's cleavage, that being his eye level.

He would have liked to say that it was the shock of this realization that made him stare a bit longer, but it wasn't. _Damn Ero-Sennin, getting to my head like that_. He made a show of apologizing and getting up, but for two heartbeats, he'd just stayed like that, conscious of the heat radiating-

ACK!!! Damnit, Ero-Sennin really had gotten to him. Hinata was blushing, but seemed not to have realized where his eyes had first been drawn. Good. He didn't want her to think of him like that.

"G-Gomen Ne, Hinata-chan." Naruto said nervously.

"I-It's okay." Hinata replied, thinking of how warm it had felt.

"God, Naruto-kun, you're such a klutz." Kyoko said. Fuyuzora was trying very hard not to laugh as the silk thread wormed its end back into Kyoko's sleeve.

"Shut up!" he exclaimed.

"Ooh, I'm _so_ scared." Kyoko said. "Anyway, it's just about dinner time, let's go back to my room and eat."

"Okay!" Naruto said. "Can the kitchen staff here cook ramen?"

"Maybe not as good as Ichiraku, but pretty good" Fuyuzora said.

"Awesome!" Naruto ran out the door, the Kunoichi following him.

"Wow." Fuyuzora chuckled. Kyoko smiled at him, and because no one else was in the room, gave him a peck on the cheek. She stood up and crossed the squeaky floor to look at the five hanging scrolls.

"Fuyuzora-kun, am I imagining it?" she asked.

"What?" he asked, walking over besides her and taking her hand. Her other hand traced the characters on the fourth hanging scroll. The characters were written in strong black ink and an energetic hand. The characters themselves were spiky and sharp and zigzagged.

"Naruto-kun… he's so similar to Yondaime. He looks like him, he acts like him, he wants to be Hokage…" Kyoko said softly.

Each of the five hanging scrolls had been written by a different Hokage. They were beautiful, and very valuable. The Shodai's blocky text contrasted sharply with his brother's flowing words. Sandaime had neat, precise, thin handwriting, and Tsunade's resembled her grandfather's, though more delicate. In the middle was Yondaime's, dashed off, seemingly so hastily.

"But your mom knew Yondaime, and she would have known about his family." Fuyuzora said. Kyoko looked at him. "I'm not saying it's impossible, and he obviously had some connection with Naruto if he could seal the Kyuubi within him. But there's no record of a wife. Anywhere." Fuyuzora sighed.

"Then again, it could have been kept secret for a reason. Yondaime could have had a girlfriend, and it happened accidentally and they just couldn't get married, or they did in secret, or… hell… I dunno, it could have been a one night stand." Fuyuzora said. "In any case, he's as good as a father to Naruto."

"It freaked me out so much when I first saw him." Kyoko said. "Do you remember meeting Yondaime that time?"

He raised an eyebrow at her.

"God, don't give me that look." Kyoko said.

"How could I forget, silly?" he asked.

"I dunno… jeez, stop with the puppy dog eyes, Fuyuzora…" Kyoko blushed.

"It's been years since we've been alone together." He put her forehead on hers, wrapping his arms around her and pushing her against the wall. He whispered something.

"Fuyuzora…"

"I missed you." He said.

"I know." Kyoko looked away.

"God, this is _just_ like you, Kyo."

"What?"

"Can't you just be honest for once?"

"How?"

"By admitting you missed me too."

Kyoko looked him in the eye. "Maybe a little bit."

He smiled and kissed her.

Cheeks flushed and hair mussed, she finally said "Maybe a lot"

X

X

X

"Hey, where the hell did they go?" Naruto asked grumpily. "They said they were gonna come down with us, but noooooooo."

"I'm sure they'll be down soon" Hinata said. "They probably just stopped to get Nyoko-chan and Chouji-kun."

Sakura, who had a better idea of what the heir apparent and the princess were doing, said "Just eat your food, Naruto, you have ramen, damnit."

"It isn't as good as Ichiraku's" Naruto pouted.

"Shut up and eat." Sakura said. "We're going to have to stay the night here anyway, it's too late to start out to Konoha now, and we might as well enjoy it."

"Aw, but I wanted you guys to see my wedding!" Kyoko exclaimed later, when she and Fuyuzora had rejoined the rest of the group, somewhat rumpled looking. "We're getting married tomorrow morning! Well, not the official wedding, that's next week, but we're getting a friend to marry us tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?" Hinata asked.

"Yeah. It'll just be you guys, Hikari, Maki, and my friend Tsuki. Very small. But I want it…" Kyoko coughed and blushed "_We_ want it to be um… our day, instead of the entire country's."

Fuyuzora said nothing, but was positively beaming. Nyoko, who, along with Chouji, had joined them for dinner, mimed gagging.

"But we really have to get going tomorrow. Our mission parameters stated that we had to set out for Konoha again as soon as you were in safe hands, Kyoko-sama" Sakura said sternly.

"It's going to be at dawn, you'll hardly take any longer than you would have anyways, _please_, Sakura-chan." Kyoko placed her hands together in a beseeching gesture. "Pleeeeeeeeease, Sakura-chan"

"It's a once in a lifetime opportunity, Sakura-chan." Fuyuzora added.

"I want to be there as well." Hinata said.

"Yeah, _come on_, Sakura-chan." Naruto said.

"Okay, fine." Sakura sighed.

"Thank you!" Kyoko smiled.

X

X

X

The ceremony the next day was very simple. Kyoko made her entrance on the steps of the deck and walked to Fuyuzora, who stood beside the small pond in her courtyard. The onlookers, Naruto and Chouji on one side of the small, temporary alter set up for the occasion, Hinata, Sakura, Nyoko, and the three other women, on the other side.

"I want to remind you both that I am absolutely _not_ qualified to marry you guys" the monk said.

"It'll be fine, Mori-kun." Kyoko said, grinning.

"Come on," Fuyuzora wheedled.

"Alright, just letting you guys know" Mori, Tsukiko explained, had been at the same temple that Kyoko had been a miko for a year before her legendary "disagreement" with Fuyuzora.

As he read the sutras blessing the marriage, Kyoko and Fuyuzora took each other's hands. Sakura, despite her earlier reluctance to even attend, was snapping pictures with a disposable camera.

After the vows were said and the ritual sake drunk, Naruto and Chouji threw rice and the girls threw flower petals as the couple kissed.

As everyone shared a laugh, Hinata felt hopeful for the first time about her own wedding.

The idea of getting married had always terrified her, mainly because she feared the face of the groom, who was sure to be some henchman or pawn of one of the councilors, but as the sun rose fully above the horizon, for the first time she could image a groom whose face did not make her want to turn away.

Hinata looked into the new day's sunlight with hope for the future.

X

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X

I'm sorry it took me so long to get this out guys, please forgive me! School's been fairly demanding lately (I'm supposed to be studying for my finals…) and my sister never gets off the computer. Anyway, thanks very much for reading, and please review.


	7. Chapter 7

A/N: Hello all. I'm sorry for not updating earlier. I've been super busy. Also, very lazy. But You have a chapter at long last! Huzzah!

Major thanks to everyone who reviewed. Especially those of you who guilt tripped me- this chapter would have taken a lot longer to get posted if not for you. I am very susceptible to guilt. Good job!

Chapter 7 

"Ja'ne, Hinata-chan, I'm glad to have met you" Kyoko, flower petals and rice still in her hair, gave her new friend a hug.

"I'm glad as well" Hinata smiled in return.

"Hey, don't sound so happy to be rid of me! I'll be writing you to continue our debate. We should co-write a book or something."

Hinata smiled and laughed "Okay, Kyo."

Kyoko turned to Sakura. "Tsunade-sama picked herself one hell of a student." Sakura blushed with pleasure, despite herself. "And…" Kyoko's eyes softened. "Whatever it is you're looking for, I hope you find it." she added.

There was a moment when Sakura's jade green eyes glazed over, but then she blinked and returned Kyoko's gaze.

"I will." Sakura said in a cheerful, if slightly quivering, voice, "I'm not Tsunade-sama's student for nothing."

Fuyuzora paused and watched the girls momentarily. Then he turned back to Naruto.

"See you then, Rokudaime." Fuyuzora grinned.

"Heh heh." Naruto gave his best foxy grin. "I'll be seeing you too, tono."

"Hey, look." Fuyuzora said more seriously. "Take care of Hinata-chan, okay?"

"What?"

"If she could get Kyo back to red hair, she's something special. A girl like her doesn't come around every headship, you know what I mean?"

"Yeah, yeah." Naruto agreed, not hearing what Fuyuzora was implicating.

"Stop talking about me, Fuyuzora-kun!" Kyoko said. "Oi, Naruto-kun, come here"

"Eh? Why?"

"Come here and be grateful I'm allowing you in my presence, which is so delightful and awe-inspiring it might as well be divine." Kyoko said.

Naruto sighed and walked over to her. She smiled.

"Become the best Hokage there ever was, okay?" Kyoko ruffled his hair. "I'll be talking to Tsunade-sama about some stuff."

Naruto grinned. "Hai!"

Nyoko, who was saying goodbye to Choji, rolled her eyes at her sister.

With a few more goodbyes exchanged, the group of Shinobi walked out the gate. Nyoko waved at them furiously as Kyoko leaned up against Fuyuzora comfortably. He smiled at her.

"So we've meddled sufficiently?" he asked.

"For now, love." Kyoko replied contentedly.

There was a tap at the sliding door, and it slid open to reveal a page girl. "Hotaru-sama wants to see you, Kyoko-hime." The girl lisped.

Kyoko smiled at her. "Alright, Umeka-chan, I'll come with you. Is Okaa-sama well?"

"Hai, Kyoko-hime." Umeka said as Kyoko slipped her hand into the little girl's. Kyoko went inside.

Fuyuzora looked after them nervously. "I better go. Back up, you know." He said. Nyoko didn't respond. His expression softened, and he went in after his bride.

Nyoko had stopped waving and was now watching the shinobi retreat from view. None of them turned to look back. As they faded into the crowds, a drop of water landed at Nyoko's feet, and another.

X

X

X

"This place is pretty cool." Naruto said as they wandered the neatly laid out streets of the capital.

"Hai." Hinata said, clearly enjoying herself.

"-Despite the fact that we've somehow wandered into the red light district…" Sakura said as a group of women giggled and waved at the group.

Naruto waved back obliviously.

"Ow ow ow ow OW OW OW!!!" he exclaimed as Sakura dragged him away from them by the ear.

Hinata smiled and laughed, covering her mouth with her hands self-consciously. Naruto and Sakura argued as they walked back to the more reputable part of town until something caught Sakura's eye.

"Hey, guys, we have one more thing to do. Remember the Kumo-nin?" Sakura asked.

It took the other three a minute to realize what she was talking about.

"Oh. What about them?" Naruto asked.

"Kyo sent out a message the night we were attacked, and Tsunade sent an ANBU squad out immediately. We're supposed to meet the squad outside of town, but until then we have to wait around for Xiāo to deliver the prisoners. We were supposed to meet up at eight, and we'll have to meet the ANBU at the jail, but until then we have time to kill. Let's meet up in another hour. At… that statue." She pointed at a large bronze sculpture nearby.

"That alright with everyone?"

There was general assent. Sakura simply waved and ran off to a convenience store with bright neon signs saying "One Hour Photos" and "Open 24/7!"

"I'm going to get some ramen. See you later" Naruto said to the others.

"Hai. See you later." Hinata said.

"I'm gonna wander." Choji said, walking off in the direction they'd just come from.

It was stupid of him, he knew, but wanted to go back.

_Cho-kun, I'm sorry._

He shuffled through the crowds, pretending to look at the gimmicky souvenirs. He paused at a table and looked at the key chains morosely.

One was a cow. He stared at it bleakly.

"Hey. Stop it. You're scaring away my customers." The kiosk's owner complained. "You can't just hang out here with an enormous freaking cloud hanging over your head."

The words barely registered.

"O-i. Hello?" the shop's owner waved his hands in front of Choji's face.

"HEL-LO!" the man demanded.

"Oh." Choji said, sounding a million miles away.

The man sighed. "Sir, you're really gonna have to leave. You have no idea how much I need to sell this stuff."

Choji kept staring at the cow.

"Are you gonna buy that?" the man asked hopefully.

"Um." Choji said decisively.

"That's going to be 650 ryou?" the man said even more hopefully.

"Oh… what?"

"650 ryou for the cow. But because I like you, and because I want you to either buy something or get the hell outta here, 550 for you." the man smiled.

"Oh. Alright." Choji handed over a 1000 ryou note.

The man cheated him out of some of his change, but Choji didn't care. He just took the cow and walked on.

_"I really wanted to- to let you know that I really, really like you."_

The cow stared at him empathetically. He walked through town, gloom hanging over his head.

He sat down on bench, finally, and stared at a storyteller, a homeless young man who would spin a yarn or two for a coin. Several children crowded around him.

"Okay, okay, simmer down, kids. This next one is called ' The Demon and the Minister of the Left'. It's a true story, and it takes place in the old capital of Hi no Kuni one thousand years ago." The storyteller began. "There once was a demon of royal blood who loved a princess. He lived in the forest, where he was king, though some fools say he lived on the moon. His greatest dream was to marry his princess. He would give up his kingship for her, and his horns, the signs of his royal demon-hood, if only they could live their lives in devotion to each other. As a boy, he had been very lonely, and often was left to wander the woods alone. One day he wandered so far that he found himself in the city, lost and unable to find his way back home. He stumbled into a house and collapsed, crying."

"In this house there lived a Minister of the Left who wanted nothing more but to have his family's name reach the highest peak of Hi no Kuni- he wanted an emperor of his blood to sit on the throne. He had a beautiful daughter, and he planned to marry her to the emperor when she came of age."

"This girl of the highest blood was the demon's princess."

"Of course, back then, people rarely if ever married for love, and girls were not included in the decision as to which man they would be bound to for the rest of their lives. So the princess, the lovely and graceful princess, didn't even know she was intended for the emperor when she found the demon boy, collapsed in her courtyard. She, like him, was very lonely, and they became fast friends. They spent many afternoons together, finding that they could speak their minds to each other easily, and that they enjoyed each other's company."

"But the demon boy found that every night the forest called to him in his dreams, reminding him of his duties and obligations. The castle the children had made out of clouds had to vanish, as these things always do. He knew, after a full season had passed, that he was strong enough to return to the forest now; what's more, he had to. He would certainly die outside of his natural home, and his princess would be in terrible trouble if her father found out about their friendship. He told her he had to return home."

"_Remember when we met, when we were both twelve? I've always thought about you since then. I didn't think we'd ever meet again, and so I asked Kyo to request you when she put in word to Konoha about the mission. I wanted to see you again."_

"She cried, when he told her, and pounded her fists against his chest childishly, saying that he would forget about her if he left. He said he wouldn't. She said she wanted him to take her with him. He said he couldn't. But he swore that one day, he would return for her. And he would take her away and marry her."

"She asked when. He said 'Ten years, to this day.' And she agreed. She promised to marry him if he came for her."

"And then she promptly forgot him. Or rather, she was made to forget. She told a nurse about her promise, unwisely, and the nurse told her father, and soon her entire family mercilessly campaigned to convince her that her promise was nothing but a dream. Soon even the ruins of the castle in the sky had disappeared, and she taught herself not to think of her demon boy, and instead of the emperor's palace, where she would be one among many women."

"The night before she was due to enter the Emperor's court and become his bride, her demon boy came for her." The storyteller said. "He-"

"Hey, get out of here." A two men in the uniforms of the capital's police interrupted gruffly. "No panhandling around here."

"I'm transacting business." The young man said. The policeman kicked at him.

"Get out of here unless you feel like spending a couple of days in jail."

The man shrugged. "More comfortable than where I've been sleeping." He said, but stood up, clearly moving on. The children had already scattered like so many leaves in the wind.

Choji stood up as well, clutching the key chain.

"_So I really, really am sorry. I don't want to- to do what my family has decided is best for me, Cho-kun"_

He followed after the storyteller. "Oi."

"What'd you want?"

"What happens in the rest of the story?"

The storyteller shrugged. "Whatever you want to happen. It's bad luck to tell that story."

"Then why were you telling it?"

"Nostalgia, mainly. The demon and I are very similar"

"Please tell me the rest of it." Choji asked. He didn't know why it was so important to him. He handed the young man some money. The storyteller shrugged.

"Alright." He said. "Long story short, the demon kidnaps the princess. She gets angry at him and breaks the promise from their youth. He takes her back to his palace in the forest. Her father and the emperor send an army after them. The army kills the demon and all his forces. The princess was living with the demon, so it's now no longer acceptable for her to marry the emperor, so she marries the man who killed the demon. They live happily ever after. End of story." The boy says. "It's a way of telling the outcasts and those of lowly blood that because of the things that are out of their control, happiness will always escape them."

Choji was silent for a long time. Then- "Thank you" he said, handing them man another handful of bills.

The man didn't reply, simply vanished into the crowds.

_"I'm so, so sorry, Choji" Nyoko said, and then she took his first kiss._

_"I'm getting married"_

X

X

X

Fuyuzora, sitting in the hall outside Kyoko's mother's room, saw Kyoko stand up, her silhouette on the screen door imposing.

"Sit down," Her mother hissed.

"No."

"Ky-"

"Okaa-sama." Kyoko interrupted. "I'm an adult now. I am still your child, but I'll be damned if I place your selfish desires above my sister. I was born to protect her. And I swear, I will never let her marry him." she said, and then stormed out of the room.

She walked past Fuyuzora, who stood up and followed after her.

"Don't talk to me, Fuyuzora." She said. "Leave me alone."

"Kyo-"

"I said, leave me alone!" she walked faster. "You knew! You knew and you didn't tell me!"

"Kyo, I can't do anything. I've tried."

She whipped around, eyes streaming. He looked taken aback. "Kyo, you're crying."

"Damn right I am! How could you, Fuyuzora?" she demanded. "We're supposed to be married now, idiot, you can't leave me out of… of…"

"I didn't want to tell you until Nyoko-chan had been told."

"Aka. Call her Aka." Kyoko said wearily. All of her anger dissolved, leaving her empty and unsupported. "How could Okaa-sama do this?"

"You know what they say about good intentions, sweetheart."

"Don't 'sweetheart' me, I am _not_ in the mood for it." she sighed. Abandoning her anger for the moment, she leaned back against him. He wrapped his arms around her, not saying anything.

She burst into fresh tears. "Goddamnit, Fuyu"

He knew words couldn't take the edge off the hurt, so he said nothing.

"I love you so fucking much, Fuyu. I love you so much that it hurt when I was away from you. Even when I wouldn't read your love notes. Even when I yelled at your messengers. Especially then. You're such a goofy, stupid bastard, and yet I spent every waking moment hurting. I want to be with you so bad, even right now, and I want this for Aka." Kyoko said.

"I know."

"Aka was always the baby. She always got what she wanted. And I want her to have something like this." She said. "And to know that she's not getting it…"

"I know, Kyo, I know." He said. "I know you. You don't break your promises. She's not marrying Seiyuuki. It'll be okay."

They were both quiet for a long moment. Fuyuzora could practically hear the cogs turning in her mind. She was scheming something for sure, and wouldn't be okay until she had a plan worked out. Finally, apparently, something clicked. She took a deep, shaky breath. "How is it that I can be angry one minute and crying the next, and you can make me smile anyway?" she asked.

He smiled gently and kissed her on the cheek. "It'll be okay." He grinned, a very different expression from the previous one. "Now, maybe we can work on the 'wanting to be with you so bad, even right now' part."

She punched him playfully on the shoulder. "You are such a horndog." She said, wiping her eyes.

"Well, we are married now. Maybe we could get to the consummating part?" He grabbed her from behind and hugged her around the waist.

"God, you!" she exclaimed, blushing. "What was last night, then?"

"Ah, last night. Last night was an illicit love affair."

"I'm not hearing this from you" she said, turning bright red. He nibbled on her ear.

"Yes you are, and you like it too." He said wickedly. She turned around and glared at him. Then she smiled despite herself.

"You're pretty when you're angry, but I like it better when you smile." He said, and promptly picked her up, carrying her bridal style down the hall.

"Kyoko-sa- oh! Fuyuzora-sama!" Hikari exclaimed as they came up the stairs.

"Hikari-chan, we're going to be in this room for awhile. Send our meals up to us." He said.

"Oh… yes, sir." she said.

"Thanks, Hikari-chan" Kyoko said with a wink. "And keep this quiet, please?"

"Oh, yes, of course." Hikari stood up and hurried out of the hall.

Fuyuzora carried her into her room, shutting the door behind him with his foot.

X

X

X

After a day and a half of traveling at full speed, they were almost back in Konoha, and Sakura, who had insisted on the pace, had ordered a break.

The return trip to Konoha had been much quieter than the trip to the capital. Choji was depressed (and it was saying something about the state of Choji's depression that it was able to penetrate Naruto's muddled thoughts) since they'd left. Sakura seemed to desperately want to ignore the fact that her entire team was silent. Hinata seemed to be a little sad at leaving their newfound friend.

And it was Hinata who was causing his tangled feelings.

It had taken him forever to figure out who had said "She was always watching you". He had only remembered because he was eating ramen. There'd been a kid in the ramen stall who was clearly awed by him, but too shy to ask him what it was like to be a ninja. So Naruto had started thinking of a good story to tell to draw the kid out of his shell, and wound up thinking about the Chunin exams. That's when he remembered that the almost-familiar voice was Sakura's when she was younger. It had finally clicked that she'd said it at the Chunin exams, and then he ran through all the events in the Chunin exam, until he finally remembered.

It was Hinata who was always watching him.

Dislike it as much as he might, Fuyuzora's words kept coming back to him. He hadn't ever noticed Hinata watching him before, but now, every once in awhile, he'd feel something, a tingling on the back of his neck, and he'd catch her eye before she blushed and looked away.

Or had he? The tingling sensation was pleasant and familiar, somehow.

But "she was always watching you" was a bit extreme, surely. She wasn't always watching him, was she?

He knew she admired him. She'd admitted as much before his match with Neji. And come to think of it, after he'd won the match, he hadn't been looking for anyone but Hinata in the crowd. So maybe he did notice her watching, and he liked it?

He started pacing around the clearing they were stopped in nervously.

But that was stupid. Back then, he liked Sakura. To be honest, there were still remnants of his crush on her, even though he'd basically sworn himself to destroying any chance of a relationship with Sakura he might have had. If he could do that, did that mean he didn't like Sakura that much, even back then? He sighed. Sometimes his own feelings were unclear even to himself.

But Hinata liked someone else, didn't she? So none of this even mattered, because-

Argh. Naruto puffed up his cheeks, pouting. Everything went in circles, and he wasn't getting anywhere. It didn't matter.

He told himself that firmly for about four seconds. Then he started thinking again.

So Hinata-

"Break's over. Let's get going!" Sakura said. Naruto started. "Jeez, don't have a heart attack, even if I am qualified to handle it. What's with you?"

"Nothing. Just thinking"

"Thinking? Well no wonder you're drooling!" Sakura teased.

"EH?!" Naruto hastily wiped his chin roughly with his sleeve.

"Kidding" Sakura grinned. "Dummy."

Naruto gave her a dirty look.

"Let's get going" Sakura said, turning. He scowled and rubbed his nose.

X

X

X

Hinata smiled as they walked in the gates of Konoha. It was good to be home.

Naruto apparently echoed her sentiments. "ICHIRAKU, HERE I COME!" he yelled. Hinata giggled. He turned towards her. "Ano… Hinata-chan, do you want to come too?"

Sakura, Choji, and Hinata gaped at him. Hinata's mouth flapped in a most unladylike fashion, and Sakura moved to hold her up in case she should faint, but Hinata managed to stutter out "Y-y-y-y-y-y-yes" without collapsing.

Naruto gave her a slightly sad smile. Neither Choji nor Sakura noticed, as they both exclaimed "We'll go turn in the papers! Have fun!" and dashed away.

Hinata could feel her face burn so hot that it hurt. She was sure she was tomato red and that she could fry an egg on her face if she really wanted to. Naruto, thankfully, did not seem to notice.

"Let's go, then." Naruto said, with another halfhearted smile and started walking towards Ichiraku.

Hinata hurried after him.

Was this a date? He had seemed so awkward, and inviting her exclusively, that must mean… right? But no, he still liked Sakura, didn't he? And it madenosenseandsurely-

She realized she was hyperventilating, and forced herself to take deep, slow breaths.

They were both very quiet on the walk. Ichiraku's, when they reached it, was empty, and Ayame and old man Ichiraku greeted them happily.

"Hey, Ji-chan! Hey Ayame-nee-chan!" Naruto said happily as he took his seat.

"Hello" Hinata said faintly. The father and daughter observed her complexion and exchanged knowing glances.

"Welcome to Ichiraku's. What can I get you?" the ramen man smiled widely. "Good to have my best customer back in town"

Naruto gave him a real, face-splitting grin. "Pork ramen, please!"

"Miso ramen for me" Hinata mumbled.

As the old man fixed their ramen, Naruto told the tale of his latest adventure to Ayame, embroidering generously the less boring parts.

"So you got to meet the man who will rule Hi no Kuni someday? That's neat" Ayame said.

"Yeah. He's cool"

"H-he reminds me a lot of you, N-n-naruto-kun" Hinata supplied. "He's very open and direct with his feelings, and he's big hearted."

"Hinata-chan?" Naruto asked, puzzled.

Hinata managed to smile at him. "He's a very good man."

Naruto's cheeks colored faintly.

"His wife sounds interesting too. The tabloids are already having a field day with their romance." Ayame said. "For a place where everyone hides their faces, the court certainly has a lot of notorious members."

"Oh yeah! I didn't tell you about the plot against Kyo-nee-chan's life!" Naruto burst out.

Ayame looked astonished "You call the future daimyo's wife 'Kyo-nee-chan'?"

"Not to her face. She's just Kyo then" Naruto grinned.

Ayame just stood, stunned, at that news. Old man Ichiraku placed the two bowls of ramen before his customers.

"Enjoy" he smiled widely.

Naruto grinned like a madman and dug into his bowl. Hinata, more demurely, sipped a bit of the broth.

It was eerily quiet even after the couple finished their ramen.

"So what did you think of the capital?" Ayame asked brightly, trying to get the conversation going.

"It was nice." Hinata said quietly.

"It was cool. Definitely didn't have ramen this good, though." Naruto grinned awkwardly.

They settled back into silence. Ayame gave them an impatient, exasperated look. "Oh, come on! Is this a date or isn't it!"

Hinata opened her mouth and stopped when she realized she had no idea what to respond.

Naruto went bright red "We're just friends!" he exploded, tossed down the cost of the meals, and stormed off. Hinata gave them a stunned, apologetic look, and took off after him.

Teuchi shook his head sadly. Ayame's expression was now one of thunderstruck horror.

Hinata followed after Naruto, trying to brush off the stinging hurt. She caught up with him easily and tugged on his sleeve. "Naruto-kun, she didn't mean anything bad by that. You know how Ayame is."

He slowed down and took a deep breath. "Sorry about that." The flush of anger that had risen to his cheeks was draining away and was rapidly replaced by an embarrassed blush as he realized what a royal ass he'd been. Why had he flown off the handle like that anyway, he wondered.

"What's wrong?" she asked, concerned.

"God." He hung his head. "I'm sorry. It's just… Um, well, you said that there was a guy- and your family's- and I don't want people to think- that guy- and I- and she- and then she said that and I- and Sakura was always mad, and- I didn't want you to- and that guy you like and-!" he fumbled, babbling. He took a breath as a look of profound confusion spread across Hinata's face.

He tried to organize his thoughts. Sakura had always been mad at him for butting into her business, especially with Sasuke. He did that because he liked her. Sakura was a girl. So was Hinata. Hinata liked a guy. And if people thought he was going out with Hinata, then it'd screw things up with the guy, and she'd get mad at him, and for some reason he really, really didn't want that. And all of this came out in a huge jumble.

"Don't worry, I don't like you!" he burst out.

He simply could not fathom why her face went blank, and then crumpled as she burst into tears. She gracefully turned and sprinted away.

He felt like he had just something enormously wrong.


End file.
